Pink is the New Black
by TheDaughterBox
Summary: Due to the fact that free food is good food, Jinx decides that going not-villian and rooming with Kid Flash isn't so bad. But with the Brotherhood of Evil on the loose, Jinx's pride in question, and Flash's playboy past, her opinion could change quick.
1. Earth to Jinx

Jinx felt like a fugitive.

Looking over her shoulder every few moments, she quietly walked through Jump City, staying in shadows. She sighed to herself. This was the most _fantastical _way to feel when getting out of a life of crime. Sneaking around at 2 A.M., going to god knows where. Yes. This was surely the way to enlightenment.

Jinx looked down. In her hands was the last rose he had given her, along with his address, which she had already memorized. She bit her lip, and continued to walk.

It had been a on whim really. To leave the H.I.V.E Five. No, wipe that smile off your face. Jinx was not going to Kid Flash's out of love, or even like really. She just need a change. That's all. And if Kid Flash wanted to offer to feed her, give her a place to stay, and have her basically leech off his success, _why should she ruin his happiness?_

Jinx glanced around again. She was just waiting for someone - anyone- to stop her. Well, not anyone. She knew Kid Flash was stopping some bank robbery or whatever, as she had seen on the news before she left. The Titans were out of town, (hopefully) stomping on the collective face of the Brotherhood of Evil.(Really, that group as a whole was taking up _way _to much of everyone's time). It wasn't like the police could even _touch _her. So who could that leave?

Ok. Full disclosure. When Jinx left, she may have … just a tiny bit… been a big wuss. And she may have… just a tiny bit … not told her team she was leaving. Well, her old team now. But it was totally ok. She had left a note! Not just a normal note though. It was a goodbye note ( how cliché), and to even make them feel better about themselves, she had refrained from using the old_ it's not you it's me _line. It totally was them.

Don't give her that look! It wasn't like her team cared away, as Jinx tried to convince herself. After Kid Flash had destroyed their base, the H.I.V.E. Five had fallen into a sort of funk. All the guys did all day was eat their (disgusting) food creations ( cold pizza with melted peanut butter anyone?) and play their stupid videogames. So, what if Jinx left to make something of herself? That wasn't going to put a dent on their _brilliant _plans to act like lazy-asses.

The moon was sinking lower in the sky, and Jinx knew she had to find his place soon. She growled angrily. Where were Kid Flash's stalker roses to show her the way when she needed them! She looked down again at the one in her hand. He had been leaving them everywhere for her, and it had actually made Jinx a tad paranoid. For her to take a shower all past week, as well as taking the usual precautions against the other members of her idiot team ( checking for Gizmo's cameras and barring the door) Jinx had to also glance in all manners of directions and scream ( for dramatic effect) at the ceiling - " Kid Flash, if you phase through the wall while I am taking a shower, I will so much as blow you up into smithereens!" No matter if her powers didn't actually allow her to do that. She was running out of feasible threats damn it!

Jinx had finally reached street his apartment was on. It wasn't the ritziest of neighborhoods, but it sure as hell wasn't the Jump City docks, where she had been living (more like slumming) before. She quickly took a peek inside the lobby. Having anyone see her, as she took the metaphorical long walk from the side of villainy to the side of … not villainy would make Jinx's bad mood worse.

_What was she now anyway? _She thought while taking the elevator up to his floor. She had renounced her life of crime ( to herself. Last night. On a rooftop. You should have been there. It was awesome.) but, although rooftop brooding and subsequent declarations were an integral part of the job, Jinx wasn't sure if she wanted to be a _hero_. Ugh. How she had reviled that word for so long.

Huffing out of annoyance the entire way, she stalked down the hall, stopping at his door. _Finally. _This little excursion had taken her upwards of an hour, and she was _tired_ of walking and contemplating hastily made life choices. Reaching over she tried the door handle. It wouldn't budge. Jinx then proceeded to wrestle with it for ten minutes, before somewhere in the goop that was becoming her mind, someone far off shouted _it's locked dumbass!_

Oh. So it was. How nice of you to point that out little mean voice. I don't call you names when you do something stupid. _Well, that's because I never _do_ anything stupid. _And on it went, with Jinx feeling somewhat pathetic in the back of her mind, reduced to fighting with her inner voice in front of a hero's apartment at 3 A.M.

That still did not mean she was going to let the voice just _win._

And then, it could be safe to say that Jinx fully did not notice when someone silently trudged up behind her.

" Soooo," Jinx whirled around in surprise at the sound of Kid Flash's voice. " Do you always give yourself the finger and scream _bitch! _at every apartment door you come to? Or is my door just special?"

_

* * *

_

A/N: My very first story! I feel oh so proud of myself. I don't know when I will update next, but it will probably be soon. For even though for most of this Jinx waxed poetic_, there will be actual plot at some point_. Trust me. Jinx's inner voice says so.


	2. Jinx to Earth

_If I could just reach the window_ … Jinx had never really thought of killing herself off before. Sure, it was a passing thought that she had from time to time, but really what teenager could say differently? Every embarrassing defeat of the H.I.V.E Five, every time Raven (that bitch) had sent her flailing through a wall with that stupid chant, Jinx couldn't help but think _Why can't I just disappear so I never have to show my sorry face again?_

But now, as she stood in Kid Flash's apartment at some ungodly hour, caught in the act of cursing at thin air not unlike a psyche patient, did Jinx really think of the how of offing one's self. Must it be a formal thing, where you made large declarations on how the world (and her luck) sucked? Or, more importantly, _would her hair fit through the window? Did she have to turn to an angle while jumping, consequently making her leave this earth in an unflattering pose? _

"You know I would catch you before you hit the ground, right?" said a quiet voice. Breaking out of her reprieve, Jinx turned away from the window to stare at Kid Flash with a half accusing, half afraid look. Had he other powers than super speed? He was sitting on the bed that he had moments before pulled out from the couch, and seemed none to amused himself.

She set her jaw and stared him down. What was she thinking? Jinx was NOT going to be intimidated by anyone who wore spandex. "You're not a mind reader right? Because I have a policy against mind readers." Yes Jinx, disregard the fact that you have never actually met a mind reader before. You will make up discriminating rules as you please.

"No," a smile suddenly played at his lips._ Should this guy be the psyche patient?_ Jinx thought. She was suddenly wary again, glancing around the small apartment for bipolar medication.

" It's just that," he continued, " you've been talking for the past ten minutes out loud." Oh. Ohhhhhhh. Never mind everyone. Jinx was the one needing the mental care.

Acting like that little scene did not just play out, Jinx moved to sit on the bed with him, and for the first time that night took a good look around the room. It wasn't a closet, but it wasn't exactly Titans Tower. There was a small bathroom towards their right, and a kitchen only cut off from the living room by a thin wall. From the room's center came a hallway where she guessed was his room. The whole apartment was obsessively neat, as if someone with OCD, or with too much free time (Jinx guessed the latter) resided there. It was strange to be somewhere so clean, considering she was coming from a place where the defining feature was the grape jelly stuck to the ceiling.

Kid Flash watched her, foot tapping lightly. He was slightly nervous that she would proclaim he and his home trash, and then walk out of his life forever without so much as a backwards glance.( Know from this moment onward that Kid Flash was not so much more as a secret dramatic at heart.) For, as much as he knew how much flack he was going to get from the Titans ( Robin especially), Kid Flash had just not, if for a little bit, fallen completely for the pink haired girl in front of him. _And she is here, at my house!_ That was the big thing. If he had broken her down so much as to come away from evil to live with him, how long would it be before …

The speedster was so lost in thoughts that had turned from G to X, that he did not hear when the subject of his fantasies decided to speak.

" Hey. Hey! Kid Flash! Earth to Kid Flash! Wipe the idiot look off your face long enough to tell me how you operate your shower. That facet is like a Chinese Puzzle Box!"

" Who, whaaa?" He looked to the spot where she was beside him, only to find that she was there no longer. Whirling around franticly he finally spied her head poking out of the bathroom door.

" When did you move?" He looked to the empty spot next to him again, as if a specter Jinx would appear there to offer him kisses and gifts of love. ( Needless to say, that would not be happening any time soon.)

Jinx sighed. "I thought you were supposed to be fast, not a space cadet. Now, shower?" Although it was late, and rather abrupt, Jinx needed the time alone from Kid Flash, if not only to get over the awkward feeling of seeing in his eyes moments before total love. It scared her a little, as well as made her feel kind of heartless. None of which was totally ok.

"Oh right," he blinked once, and then was there, nearly knocking her down in the process.

" Watch it!" Jinx backed up, nearly falling down over the sink before righting herself with movements she somehow made condescending. He looked at her for a moment, eyebrows raised, before leaning into the shower. Just as his hand was about to touch the dial, he stopped, and turned back around to face her with a sick little puppy dog look that made her wonder if she could punt him out the side of the house. ( By Jinx's estimation, it was a no go.)

" Wait, so if you're using my shower, does this mean you like it here? And you're going to not jump out the window to your death?"

She sighed and rolled her eyes. She thought they had a non-agreement to forget about that, Kid Flash!" Yes, I'm staying but -" Cue Kid Flash's happy dance, which was a little hard to do considering the almost claustrophobic bathroom, and Jinx whose eyes were now glowing hot pink ( which is actually more terrifying than it sounds.)

"But!" Jinx interrupted him. " Serious where else would I go? You're the only person this week who has so kindly offered to be allowed my presence, without me having to get a job." Her hand offered a flourish to the shower once more.

" Ah, see that's where you are wrong!" The yellow and red idiot pointed his finger upwards in a manner not unlike a court room attorney shouting _objection!_ How Jinx had been there before. " Because you will be fighting crime! With me! Like a sidekick!" Maybe it was running to Africa and back earlier in the day, or the heat, or something, for as soon as those words were out of his mouth did Kid Flash realize how stupid they sounded.

And then came the pain.

There was a loud _crash!_ and the next thing he saw was those murderous glowing eyes again, which in other circumstances would have been incredibly pretty, ( Oh love, why must you blind us so?) It was then he slowly came to see, in order, that _one, there is a hole in the bathroom wall. Two I am on the floor. Three, there is plaster all around me, and four … I am in SO much freaking trouble right now. Crap._

" Don't you EVER call me a sidekick AGAIN!" Kid Flash reeled back. It seemed Jinx was two seconds away from her head turning all the way around and projectile vomiting. This was not the way to make friends.

Before he could make up some pathetic excuse, she started up again. "And who even said I want to be a hero? Maybe I want to be a teacher, or a office worker, or a trapeze artist! I could do that!" Jinx was so worked up she wasn't even making sense anymore, though he did wonder if she would make a good trapeze artist. _She was flexible enough _…

Somewhere in the apartment, Kid Flash vaguely heard a pipe burst. _Well there goes my lease_. Between the wall and the pipe, he knew he was probably going to get a lashing from the landlord, followed by a pamphlet with Jump City's finest homeless shelters.

Jinx seemed to hear it too though, and stopped her tirade long enough to look around, see the destruction, and sigh, ultimately sliding down to sit on the floor next to the speedster. After a moment she spoke.

"Sorry about your apartment. "

"Oh, no worries, I can probably get someone in here to fix it up." There were actually big worries, like how he was going to explain to the Titans why there was a home 'renovation' bill that they were paying for. (Maybe _if you offer to room me while you're gone, and you don't put me in the Tower, expect me to make my own home improvements_ would do? No? Not doing it for you? He would have to work on that.)

Jinx stared him down. How could he be so nice to her? She had just destroyed has place, for God's sakes! And now, as water ran dully across the floor from the kitchen, did Jinx think about how far reaching her powers could be._ Bad luck is right._

She almost didn't notice when he spoke again, a lighter tone in his voice. " So then Jinx… are you still willing to take that shower?" Kid Flash gestured to the bathroom, and Jinx didn't know what he meant until she saw the gaping hole in the wall. _Well there goes that plan._ And then came the realization.

" Hey wait … Perv!" She went to hit him, but he was already gone, the ghost of his laughter carrying all the way to his room, just as the pink hue of daylight broke over the accursed window.

* * *

A/N: Chapter two, for your enjoyment! So I went back and looked at the first chapter, where I came to see that, in my haste, I had left _huge gaping plotholes_ throughout. Like, I'm talking plotholes that I could fit my metaphorical arm through. So, in the first A/N, I lied. There will be no real plot (that you can see) until probably chapter 4. Until then I will be trying to clean up the mess I make when I rush things.


	3. Regretfully Stopping Sanity from Here

_Ugh. What time is it? _As her limbs slowly tingled in the small bed she was in, Jinx felt awful. Like drinking-a-bottle-of-tequila-stumbling-around-and-finally-blacking-out-then-waking-up-in-a-paint-ball-field-with-no-idea-why-you-were-wearing-a-mermaid-costume-awful. Don't ask. (Seriously, it was H.I.V.E. graduation, a lot of people were doing crazy stuff, there was a polar bear involved- and Jinx will be shutting up now.)

She turned to face the analog clock above the television. Squinting, she looked to see if she had read it right. _It's 3 pm? Double ugh. _What happened? Why was she such a bum? And why was she sleeping in her clothes? Her closet with perfectly comfortable pajamas that didn't dig into her back (as her bra was doing at _this very moment) _were right over … It was here that Jinx finally slapped herself awake (literally), and opened her eyes completely, bolting upright.

Red alarms started going off. In Jinx's mind, the power went out, and the recorded voice calmly saying_ danger, danger_ ( why was the voice calm? This was no time to be calm!) went on. Where was she? Glancing around, she noted quiet dully that she that NOT in the cool, damp, steel cocoon of the H.I.V.E. Five base, but instead in the warm, almost cheery glow of an apartment whose tenet obnoxious shoved joy down the collective world's throat. This was a place where Jinx would not usually find herself, and made her wonder if either she had had a really good one night stand or a really bad, murder ridden evening.

But no, as her mind slowly untangled itself from the metaphorical bed sheets that she remembered what transpired previously. Oh. Kid Flash. His apartment. The Great Villainy to Non-Villainy Switch. Wussing out. Of course. The automated voice stopped, and the lights flickered back on. _Triple ugh._

Jinx flopped back down on the bed, and something akin to regret washed over her. Maybe this was a terrible idea. Who did Jinx think she was? Randomly coming up to teenage superheroes' apartments and forcing herself upon them? _Wait, wait,_ Jinx thought. _First of all, that last sentence sounded wrong. I'm no two dollar Bangkok whore! ( _Woo, go Jinx's self worth!)_ And second of all he _offered. _Does that count for nothing?_ Even though for her pride's sake she tried to convince herself otherwise, in her heart Jinx knew that no, Kid Flash's offer didn't count for anything at all.

For, though nothing had really been dependable in her life, (crime doesn't form friendships everlasting) the one thing Jinx knew she could count on was herself. Through it all, it had always been _Jinx_ who looked out for Jinx. If she didn't have that self reliance, then what did she have? A weird bad luck power that made her destroy everything she touched, and the notion that doing the walk of shame in a mermaid costume isn't the way to garner respect among your peers, that's what. (It also isn't the most practical way to hike five miles, but that was for another time.)

She bit her lip, and then shook her head, inadvertently messing up her hair (which now looked as if she were a Gorgon sister ) even more. Silently cursing herself for not removing her hairspray from the night before, Jinx tried to banish these thoughts from mind. It was a process that was to get her nowhere, pitying herself, and then letting her pride get the best of her. Pride itself had in the past always seemed to foil everything she did, for each time she had to apologize for her powers causing another staircase to collapse or computer mainframe to shut down, a little piece of her seemed to die a slow and exaggerated death, rubbing it in her face that she was not worthy. Needless to say, her psyche couldn't take the strain much longer. Besides, where was she to go if she let Kid Flash's? From experience, Jinx knew the people really freaked out when your eyes glowed an unnatural color, which subsequently allowed for no real job opportunities, or housing for that matter.

With her daily allowance for a half-assed attempt to sabotage herself completed, Jinx swung her feet over the bedside. As the aforementioned Gorgon sister look alike comment showed, she really needed to stop, and take a good hard look at herself. _Was this where she was going with her life, walking around with hair shaped similarly as a toaster?_ Jinx was nothing if not a little vain, and couldn't help but feel that looking properly would deeply increase her mood.

Though, as she turned to face the wall that separated the living room from the bathroom, Jinx squinted, and then stopped completely. Something didn't feel right. Why was a thin piece of sheet rock disturbing her so? Was there some unknown vendetta against the wall? Did she stub her boot on it walking in? Should she go interrogate the wall?

It looked completely fine-

Jinx's eyes widened as she came to a realization. _It looked completely fine!_ Didn't she just the night before put a sizable hole through it? What was this madness, having things fixed? It was something she surely wasn't used to, being that from where she came from, such trivial things as holes in the walls and fire damage from that oven she _maybe_ exploded were largely left unnoticed.

It was then that she looked down, and for the first time felt that the floor was acutely damp. Wasn't there also a burst pipe in all that nonsense? She sighed, and then felt slightly better that in her coma, the hard wood wasn't repaired as well -

"Hey, the floor guy is coming later, so don't mind-"

"AAAAAAAAA!" Jinx let out an ear piecing shirk that all girls, no matter how tough, have in their arsenal. It rocked Kid Flash's bones, and made him vow never to sneak up on her again, if only for his eardrums sake.

It took all but three seconds for Jinx to realize that she was indeed not being attacked, and living with a roommate meant that said person was bound to show up sometime, but that no lessened the damage that had been done to Jinx's fragile ego.

It also didn't help that the moment she stop screaming, Kid Flash stared to laugh.

It wasn't his fault really. After the previous night, and the prospect of having the Death Scream make a return, he really didn't want to anger her further. But, to say the least, when you walk around with hair that looked like a badly pruned topiary, the weaker willed would not be able to resist.

And Kid Flash wasn't to strong.

"Hey stop it! Don't look at me! It's not that funny!" Jinx gritted her teeth. Even though she was going to _try_ not to break anything today, Kid Flash was making it incredibly difficult, by this time rolling on the swampy floor, tears streaming down his face.

" S-S-Sorry, it's just-your hair-"

" I know!" She hissed, and stormed into the bathroom.

" Hey, wait!" He was suddenly in front of her, and she stumbled back into the newly repaired wall. Jinx wondered if all their confrontations would be in the bathroom. What did this say for them as people? And could it be _in a more confined space? _She was never one for claustrophobia, but it seemed by that by the second the walls were closing in on her.

She watched, arms crossed, as he made an idiotic attempt to make the situation right. It was a futile operation though, as there are two things that you do NOT negatively comment a lady on, and the only way he could dig himself even further into the ground would be to call her pudgy and walk off.

Which Kid Flash knew.

" I was just kidding," he smiled sheepishly at her, though that did nothing to dial down her glare. _What could I say to her? _"You… look very thin … today?"

After a moment, Jinx sighed. It was many a time when one of the other members of the H.I.V.E. Five would do something completely stupid (monster truck go kart comes to mind) and would use that phrase on her. It wore her down to no end, and had her think that all guys took commands from a secret underground network of secret underground morons.

"Fine," At this point, Jinx would take what she could get. Kid Flash brightened considerably, and before she knew what was happing, had left and returned with a variety of shampoos, soaps, and towels.

He was talking very fast, and Jinx could barely pick up on what he was saying. "I'mreallysorryand don'tknowwhatyoulike soIwentto thisawesomelittle shopinLondon-"

" Whoa, whoa, slow down, what?" Through all this Jinx was somewhat groggy, and didn't really want deal with the magnitude of word vomit that was spewing out of his mouth. It seemed he was now talking about Paris, or something of the sort, and she couldn't really keep up as he over enthusiastically described … French toast? She couldn't really tell. Her eyes glazed over, and she looked upon him dumbly, for the first time today taking in his appearance. There was something different about him. Did he get a hair cut? No, his hair was as it usually was, windblown beyond belief. But, there was something not right with his face…

" Your not wearing your mask!" Jinx shouted and clapped her hands as if she had won the grand prize on a game show. Her exclamation stopped his sentence onslaught long enough to look at her strangely.

"Yeah …" He nodded sarcastically (I know, shocker!) at her. "It's not like I spend my entire life in uniform. Spandex can get really uncomfortable after a while." Plus there were some skin problems with that that he was not about to go into.

She bit her lip and looked down. "I know, it's just that people like Robin and company always run around like it's freaking Halloween-"

"Trust me, I understand, but _they _don't have to pose as civilians when calling for a contractor to fix their apartment." Was Kid Flash a little pissed that he didn't get to stay in the Tower? You could say that.

At mention of her destruction of his apartment, Jinx grimaced, and then tried just maybe a little bit too hard to change the subject. "So, you aren't afraid I won't, like … revel your _secret identity_." For effect she wiggled her fingers and did a bad impersonation of a jazz hand.

He didn't look to impressed. "Who would you revel it to?"

Jinx hadn't exactly figured that out. She assumed there was a shadow organization that paid (preferably in cash) for this type of information, though she soon remembered that said organization went by the name of The Brotherhood of Evil, and she wasn't on their best of terms at this juncture. Plus, if she reveled Kid Flash, that would mean she would probably be out of a house, which wasn't to exciting to think about.

She huffed out, and he knew he had got her in her own game. "Can we just pick this up again later? I would love to shout your real name from the rooftops, but I _really _need to fix my hair -"

"You don't know my name. I haven't told you." His smirk said _round two for Kid Flash._

"Well …Well…" Jinx was grasping at straws. Being constantly around idiots had allowed her usually razor sharp wit to grow rusty, and now her comebacks to something like that had grown moot.

He flashed a grin at her. "Name's Wally West." And with that, too fast for her eyes to process, he gave her the bath products, turned on the shower, and sped out, closing the door behind him.

She stood there for a moment, looking at the ghost of where he stood, before breaking the spell, and stepping in the hot water, not realizing she was fully dressed until it was too late.

* * *

A/N: Chapter three! I know this one is kind of wordy, but I have taken a new approach to writing. Insted of having it written en masse and then just posting willy nilly all in about two hours, I now write a few paragraphs evey couple of days, that way I can go back and look at the little things like_ sentence structure _and _word choice_. And guess what? Though it may not look like it, this chapter is the begining of the plot! Let's just all disregard the fact that nothing happened in this particular word stew, it all will make sense soon!


	4. Underwear Won't Be Worn

Whims really sucked. They pulled you in with promises of quick decisions that had you ultimately say "yeahhhhhh, it will work itself out in the end," like walking away and ignoring the refrigerator you just blew through the roof because SOMEONE (cough Gizmo cough) had eaten all the blueberry yogurt that you had the kind initiative to go out and steal, when in reality these things never did. Instead, all you got were some serious consequences, (no one really takes various cold cuts and meats raining from the sky lightly) and strange, backwater hillbillies drunk dialing you at two A.M. after you _maybe _though they were cute under the dizzying strobe lights of a disco club you _maybe _decided to attend.

Whims also left you with no dry clothes, apparently.

Jinx stood at the bathroom doorway, peeking out in nothing but a towel so plush that it continually made her feel cheaper by the second (Seriously, was Kid Flash or _Wally _as she guessed now, trying to send her some type of message? Should she be offended?) . Her pink shock of hair hung loosely around her face, and to the causal passerby that just happened to be strolling into random apartments, she probably would have looked like a over worked parent whose 'darling' child had just dumped a rather large bucket of cotton candy on top of her head. Pushing her damp bangs out of her eyes, she looked to find that only the silver hair bands she had worn to Kid Flash's apartment, and the rose she had brought, were resting on the coffee table that was pushed haphazardly to the side to make room for the pull out bed. This was not good. Not good at all.

It had seemed that, in Jinx's haste to get out the door of the stifling H.I.V.E. Five lair, if not to pass up on the brief feeling of courage she had then really avoidance of the team she was now leaving, she had forgotten to really pack anything to bring to his apartment. It wasn't like she didn't think about it. She had taken the rose with her, right? It was just one of those things when you think you did something, but in truth, you were such a jackass that you really did nothing at all.

She silently chastised herself. It was all her fault, really. First not packing, then stepping into a shower in the midst of operation fully dressed. _This was the best and brightest the H.I.V.E. had to offer? _She internally scoffed. _No wonder the Titans took it down so easily. _

Speaking of the Titans, at this very moment Jinx watched as their own personal speedy little lapdog _finally, finally! _after who knows how many hours or days or lifetimes even (It was really only twenty minutes Jinx, no need to break out Dramatics Class 304, Embellishing Suspenseful Moments)got up from his perch on the couch/bed, and went into the kitchen, leaving Jinx alone to make some more magical whims.

_What to do? _She bit her lip. If anything, she DID NOT want Wally to see he had gotten to her. That was imperative. If he so much as _glanced _and saw her with no clothes and no hope, it would all be over, written, may even having whole page devoted to it, in books of Time and Destiny. She wasn't about to leave the path clear for him to make assumptions about how she just a tiny bit thought that his earlier display was charming-

No. We were not going there. _Totally … not … going ….there…_

Her eyeball almost popped out from the not-strain of not-going there.

_Whoa, calm yourself. _Jinx tried to breathe. Drawing attention to the bathroom by hurling the sink through the wall would not help matters. She was losing time. By the loud chainsaw type sound of it, Kid Flash was very quickly running out of things to eat. It would be soon that he would come and see her humiliation and subsequent DOOM.

With a small sigh, she assessed her options. Jinx knew there was no time for a dryer, and she doubted if Wally even had one. ( He could shake water off like a dog couldn't he? It was one of those things that made you crazy if you thought about it too hard.) She couldn't just wear the clothes, that would be even worse. (And kind of pathetic.) She pouted, and then quietly stepped out the door. _What to do?_ Cocking her head, Jinx drew her gaze down the hallway, towards Kid Flash's room, and then suddenly had an idea. A whim.

Though it could be shown that, on multiple occasions, Jinx's gut feelings were never the way to follow, that did not stop her as she tiptoed past the living room and down the hall. Besides, if she ignored these urges, where would she be? Constant bad luck has taught her that it is tons better to follow an idea you like, then one you only halfheartedly agree with, because in the end it was just going to amount to another battle with dignity, who Jinx had been having a bloody war with ever since she could remember.

But as the door to Kid Flash's room creaked open, Jinx knew that Dignity was about to have a nuclear bomb dropped on her ass.

* * *

Jinx tapped her fingers on the kitchen counter as she watched Wally, in a blur, seem to decimate their entire food supply. Her stomach growled, and she wanted _so very badly _to make a biting remark about storing food for winter, though at this point, she wasn't exactly one to talk.

With a dejected sigh, she wiggled her hips and pulled up the loose gray sweatpants that were slowly riding down on her slender frame. They, along with the baggy sweatshirt emblazed with the Flash logo ( ah, Kid Flash, so humble you are!) were at least three sizes too big, though that didn't bother her as much as to how she was to explain why she was wearing his clothes without it getting stupefyingly awkward. Not to mention this was totally going to send the wrong message! Stupid whims. How dare they tempt her with quick solutions that in hindsight make no sense!

At this moment of self-loathing, her stomach committed the highest treason in the land, growling so loudly that it snapped Kid Flash out of his food induced frenzy. He looked at her, a sandwich in one hand, and (oddly enough) a maple syrup bottle in the other.

His eyes widened as he realized that Jinx _probably _was going to be hungry at four in the afternoon, and eating all the food wasn't the politest thing imaginable. If there was one thing he prided himself on, it was being a gentleman. Well, a gentleman based on the standards of those around him, which safe to say, were pretty low. For even though they were superheroes, they were still teenagers, and although they were charged with protecting millions, they could all still be complete idiots. So though it wasn't like he was helping old ladies cross the street at every turn (he had only done it _twice _during his patrols today), Kid Flash sure as hell wasn't peering up the skirts of the groupies that constantly threw themselves at him.( Speedy, this is directed at you.)

" Oh, Jinx … Sandwich?" He held out the one in this grasp, half eaten, but she gladly took it anyway. She really was starving, as she had just noticed, and was afraid that if she herself went to the fridge, Wally would mistake her for a abnormally pale baguette and try to chew her arm off.

As she went to sit down at the small kitchen table, Kid Flash gave her a good once over with his eyes. He really couldn't help himself, as her hair was down for the first time he had ever seen, and her body was _sashaying _from one side to the next in clothes-

That looked oddly familiar.

The words were blurted out thoughtlessly, and almost came accusatory. " Are those my sweatpants?" Jinx looked up from the chair she was about to sit down in. He could see as her eyes flickered in a thousand and one directions before settling right above his head.

"Noooooooooooo?" It sounded like a question, and Jinx internally smacked herself in the head. She seemed to have taken the oft-traveled route of _deny, deny, deny, _though at this moment she was making a crap job of a case. Somewhere in the corner, Dignity writhing on the floor and making dramatic gasping noises.

Kid Flash leered very pointedly at the lighting bolt on her sweatshirt. She frowned and covered the symbol by crossing her arms. He fingered the syrup bottle before putting it down and speaking again." I mean, it's totally cool with me if you wear them …" And hot. Also unprecedented. But mainly hot.

" These aren't yours!" she snapped. "I found them!"

" Where, in my closet?"

"Nooooooooooo," Though she did hope he wouldn't look in there, as she had stuffed her wet clothes in a hat box that had held a sombrero. In hindsight, this wasn't the best thinking her mind had to offer, though Jinx had consoled herself that stuffing her musty clothes in the hat was a great service to Wally. The sombrero was orange and blue and looked totally ridiculous; if she was going to stay here, she might as well improve upon his fashion sense.

He looked at her strangely before letting it rest. It was one of those times when he knew that she knew that he knew she was lying, though she wasn't going to admit it, and he didn't really feel like getting flung through a wall, so he didn't push it. He thinks they called it an impasse. Kid Flash turned towards the fridge, reaching in and taking out some leftover Chinese food that he had picked up the other day when he stopped that super villain in Beijing. Jinx watched in horror as he proceeded to nearly swallowed the entire container.

"You're going to eat that cold?"

" Yeah," he said, voice muffled by the noodles. "Microwave …to slow."

Jinx grimaced as she polished off her sandwich. Couldn't he wait for anything?

With a sigh, she noted the mounting sense of awkwardness in the air. She shifted her weight slightly, and Kid Flash's eyes followed the movement by their own accord. The sweats were itchy. Supremely itchy. Like sand paper caliber itchy. She bit her lip, and knew she had to go buy her own clothes soon. Like now soon.

"Can I have one hundred dollars?" She blurted it out before thinking. Now her old friend Pride had joined its bitter rival Dignity on the floor, brought together by Jinx's closest confidant yet, Humiliation.

" What for?" His eyebrows shot up. Jinx didn't seem the type to ask for financial aid, though considering all of her money was of the stolen variety, as well as apparently back at her old headquarters, he wasn't really surprised.

Her tone got defensive. " Oh, you know, stuff here and there and … clothes." She sighed again, defeated.

"So you admit that you need some? Can you just "find" more in my closet?" His smirk made her want to slap him, even if he looked damn adorable doing so, like he really thought he was bad-

Don't. Go. There.

Jinx shook her head slightly, and Kid Flash took that as a means to continue, even if it really wasn't meant for him.

" So then I guess my clothes aren't good enough for you? Alright then-"

Jinx then had a temporary lapse in sanity, the kind that makes you look like a ditz, wore down by his egging on, and just wanting him to shut up and smirk at her more. "This freaking things feel like steel wool- seriously WHAT dirty factory do these come from- and what makes that all totally worse is _I'm not wearing any underwear!"_

Let us reflect upon this. Jinx, deeming it a terrible tragedy that she wear wet undergarments, had decided instead that it was better to go with none at all. That's right everyone. Jinx had gone commando.

The world stopped. Birds stopped flying, Jump City stopped being obnoxiously loud, and Wally had froze where he stood. This was too much for his brain to process. He was going into mental shutdown. _Jinx was in his kitchen, wearing his sweatpants, with no underwear. _This was like a dream, a good one, and he dully wondered if now it was time for the dancing peanut butter jars to form the conga line.

Jinx had promptly covered her mouth with her hand, but the damage was done, and Pride and Dignity and thrown themselves against the walls until they both died from the nuclear radiation from the atomic bomb that was this whim. One look in his eyes and she knew that this was to be the greatest day of his life for evermore.

Jinx didn't know what to do. Her reflexes told her to run, but her pride said to push onward. _Oh, wait, Pride is dead. _Pride, held in the arms of Dignity, was now turning to a rotting corpse on the kitchen floor. Ok then. Look's like we are choosing door number one.

"Wally?" His mind was still frozen, and her didn't even respond. He looked as though he could stand there for a century. "So… uh…. money?" She was unsure he could even hear her.

"On my dresser," He squeaked out the words through his half open mouth, barely moving his lips.

Jinx slowly got up, got the money, and left the apartment, not even closing the door all the way before hearing the cold shower turn on.

* * *

Jinx fingered the tank top, running her hands across the smooth satin. She didn't even know why she came to Jump City's uptown fashion district. It was much too expensive, and her sensibilities were more attuned to the dark Goth dresses that one usually found in the dingy thrift stores that populated downtown. Still, she couldn't help the feeling that after her not so subtle declaration to Kid Flash, she deserved something a little bit nicer than the polyester blend _thing _she constantly wore.

She pulled her hoodie tighter around her head as she saw the strange looks she was getting from two women wearing an obscene amount of jewelry, which from her trained eye, looked to be costume and completely fake. The last thing she needed right now was to be spotted and hauled off to jail for outstanding warrants. Her mind over dramatized this slightly, she surely doubted that fifty policemen would run into the store from out of the blue with guns ablaze, but Jinx wasn't about to take chances.

Still, as she held the top, a lovely hot pink, just her shade, she couldn't think otherwise then what it would be like to just take it and go. Jinx had always had a habit, burned into her after all those years at the Academy, to make up plans of how to steal and then run as soon as entering a room. She sighed and bit her lip, looking down upon the bags that held the clothes she already purchased. In her pocket, there was only twenty dollars left, surely not enough for the shirt. Damn her need for sparkly pants!

_Maybe if I just steal this one last time …_ Her thoughts waged back and forth. She knew Wally would be disappointed in her, but how was he to find out? And why should she care about his opinion anyway? Jinx narrowed her eyes. _It was his fault_, she convinced herself . What was at fault she wasn't exactly sure, but it seemed as though it was always his fault, so might as well give that the benefit of the doubt.

Just as Jinx was about to give into the overwhelming siren call of taking the blouse and running, as heard a loud _crash!_, and flew back around to the source of the noise. She was like a child who had her hand caught in the cookie jar, and Jinx waited for the inevitable fallout of Kid Flash, who could somehow sense she was going to do crime from across town, and give her a look of _ultimate disgust _before taking her to prison.

It wasn't Wally though.

Instead it was a woman, no much older than Jinx, dressed in a flowing black and red kimono that she moved through with ease. Jinx watched as the woman drew a sword from her gown without a sound, and pointed at the cash register in front of a sales clerk. The two bejeweled woman were now clutching each other, crying and making obtuse noises, but Jinx was still as she dully realized, _I'm witnessing a robbery that I'm not actively taking part in!_

The clerk quickly handed over the money, nearly shoving it at the woman. She neatly tucked it in her robe before turning around and stopping as her eyes gazed upon Jinx. It was here that Jinx got a good look at her face, which, quite strangely, had her mouth covered in a pure white cloth. Her eyes looked dark, and had large black circles around them that made Jinx think of racoons.

The woman slowly walked towards her, and she shrank back. Those eyes bore into her, like they could see _through her, _and all of Jinx's usually brazenness disappeared. At this point, just thinking of robbing the store herself, Jinx knew not what side she was on, whether to call the cops, Kid Flash, maybe even herself, or just cheering the woman on for a flawless store hold-up that was almost textbook.

The woman halted just inches from her, and stared at her blankly, only moving her eyebrows, which were going farther and farther up her head. She reached out and Jinx flinched at her icy hands as she pushed back the hood from her face, revealing her pink hair that rolled down her back in waves. The obnoxious women went almost cataclysmic at this new development.

Eyebrows as far as they could go, the woman nodded her head slightly, as if confirming something, and backed away, meeting Jinx's eyes and inclining her head towards the rear exit as she calmly strolled out of the shop before evaporating into the violent hues of sunset.

Jinx, still shaken by the encounter, did not know what the woman had meant until she dimly heard police sirens wailing, piercing and intrusive.

Pink top forgotten, she grabbed her bags and ran for her life, "accidentally" knocking over the ridiculous women, who now had the gall to point at her, on the way out.

* * *

A/N: Bleh. I don't think this chapter is really all that funny, more like _Gypsy wants to be mean and sadistic to Jinx today, so she will go about putting her in strange moments until her mood improves. _I don't know. I'm a little mad at myself for going over my self imposed deadline, and not even having the story make coherent sense afterward, but realized that I had to stop dragging my feet and making less than 24 hours a whole four chapters. So this mainly sets up the plot ... sort of? Ok, so this isn't everything, in fact if I have my way there will be a lot more intrigue and stuff, just stick with me.

Sorry if it is a bit long, but it was originally suposed to be broken up into two chapters, and, as mentioned before, I kind of had to squish everything down to keep the ball rolling. Hopefully by next time I will have my act together long enough to write something not stupid.

In other news:

I want to thank eveyone who reviewed/subscribed to/favorited/so much as even glanced at/ this story. Y'all are awesome, and make me smile. If I had seemed like I was ignoring you before, sorry again. The fact that anyone would be nice and like my writing means more to me than anyone knows.

Also, for those to still reading:

KF Fan: I _have _read Life on the Offbeat, and never, in a million years, could my sorry little scrawny story ever compare to Re-Ane's. I read it all in one sitting, at three in the morning, and I litterally _cried _when I finished and saw that she probably wasn't to update again. And I'm not talking a little single tear type of thing either. I was_ bawling_, like the crazy person that I am. I highly doubt that my story could ever be like her's in that way, and I really don't know if you meant that as a compliment or an accusation, though I am going to take it as a compliment, because life is strange that way.

Finally:

Happy Hoildays everyone! I'll try to update again by New Year's!


	5. A Lot of Bad Choices

It was mocking her.

A flower was mocking her.

She felt like an idiot, but then again, that seemed to be the running theme of the day.

Jinx put her head down on the kitchen table, cradling it in her arms, not once breaking eye contact with the bloom. In nature shows, when you get attacked by a bear or lion or something, you never let your gaze waver from their's, to show to you are dominate. She, always following the cardinal rule of _never disagree with a guy who's eaten a live bird _decided that the same principle applied here. (On a side note, Jinx's other cardinal rule, _never turn down free lobster, _had also never led her astray.)

But on second thought, maybe they always said to _not _look things that could murder you in the eye. Either way, it was pretty clear she was about to get mauled.

By a rose.

Her hand stretched out glibly across the table, reaching for Kid Flash's note again.

_Jinx,_

_Had to go on patrol. Find you later. _

_Wally_

So he would find her later. Did he suspect she would leave? Her stare returned to the flower, and she sat up straight.

In theory, saying you are not going to obsess about a robbery you saw but didn't commit should be easy. You run away from the cops, because though you did not burglarize anything, you are still a wanted fugitive. You go hide in an alley behind a dumpster, acting like you just didn't trip over a homeless man. After a predetermined amount of time, you walk back home, completely fine with the fact that you almost stole a shirt before getting felt up by a girl in a kimono. Yup. Nothing out of the ordinary there.

But then, you open the door to the apartment you've just started sharing with a _hero _no less, see one nice little welcoming gesture, and completely lose your shit_. _You froth at the mouth and make aggravated noises that sound a thousand mini chainsaws. At this point everything that happens is _not your fault_, because being super pissed at nothing in particular is a good enough excuse for anything, not to mention you think you just bit your lip and are starting to bleed into your mouth froth, which scares you a little.

The air conditioner is loud and blows out wind, and you don't like that, so you hex it and have it fall out the window where it was resting, making it slam through the fire escape into a thousand pieces. Your proud moment of conquering an imamate object is soon ruined though when you realize that it is hot outside; you hadn't realized it could get this hot at eight 'o' clock at night; what is this, hell? With the temperatures rising in the apartment to what must be a thousand degrees, you go about in a rage induced delirium, flailing your arms and making more wounded animal noises, mumbling incoherently about things you could never really control but would like to, like fire, or the ocean.

You shuffle to the fridge, not to eat anything, just to stick your head in, when you spy the rose again. Much like a three year old after a temper tantrum, a wall is hit and you sink into a chair, a thirst for mindless violence against common household appliances quenched.

However, then your thoughts turn back to how the point of turning good was to _not _think about stealing anything, and that woman with the raccoon eyes slashes through your mind, peaking your curiosity and your paranoia and your shame and you wonder how the fuck you have ever gotten through the day before without this many problems snapping at your heels.

Jinx gripped the note in her hand tightly, turning it into ash as pink energy engulfed it. Self control and limitation of her impulsive side were never her strong suits. She usually followed rule books and guidelines, whether they be the H.I.V.E.'s or the Brotherhood of Evil's, to quell the questionable ideas, but there was no protocol to be taken from when she was losing her mind while there was a distinct probability of dying from heat stroke in the air.

She couldn't just wait for Kid Flash to come back and ask him if he knew anything about an odd samurai villain. That would be much too easy! Where the only danger would be him asking how she knew of this woman, eventually leading to how Jinx almost robbed a store before the girl beat her to it, and having him get all _irate _and _up in her grill_? (Fever logic doesn't always make the most sense to those on the outside.) _Pshhhh. _This was Jinx we were talking about here. In all her plans, nothing could be subtle. That was key. There had to be hoops of fire-no hoops of scissors, there're more dangerous- and ticking time bombs and… and… monster trucks! (Please see above note on fever logic.) Yes, she needed a course of action that was so mind bending amazing that it would definitely make a lot more sense after she enacted on it rather than just thought about it.

She stood up from the table, kicking the chair back with purpose.

In Jinx's dehydrated brain, two things were of the utmost importance.

One: Go do something completely stupid because she had poor impulse control, and damn it, nothing was going to stand in her way from fully taking up on that fact.

Two: Find an air conditioner, and possibly some juice.

* * *

Jinx's relationship with her team had always been contradicting itself.

Sometimes, she was a den mother for the H.I.V.E. Five, breaking up arguments about game controllers and regulating what time of night Gizmo could work on his experiments to. (Yes Gizmo, inspiration does strike the best of us at three a.m., but shouting obscenities after you drop a power drill on your foot and waking up the entire house will not win you any favors.) Other times, Jinx was the older sister, perpetually irked with her boys and their idiocy, retiring to her room with a slam of her door to do "important villainy." (Really all that entailed was writing angsty teenage girl poetry, and doodling unicorns with her blue sparkle pen, though really no one needed to know that.)

Either way, she was forever pushing them to be greater, to _accomplish something. _

So, when Jinx heard the familiar _click _of the H.I.V.E. Five's security door latch opening, did she see what a cruel bitch fate was.

Damn her curiosity. And her pride. And her paranoia. And her stupid flash delirium.

She quickly gulped to hold her breath as she came upon the threshold, and a smell not unlike rotting cheese assaulted her nose. Choking back her gag reflex, Jinx tiptoed down the hallway that led to the underground lair. What was that strange blue fuzz on the wall? Did her former team take up the hobby of skinning Muppets in her absence? And was that _her underwear _hanging on the emergency light? Jinx scoffed as she rounded the corner into the main common area. With chairs tossed about, a wall partly smashed, and bottles scattered everywhere, it looked as though a bomb, one filled with glitter and alcohol, had exploded.

_Has my mind created a thinly veiled metaphor or am I just getting a contact high? _Jinx picked her way across the room, careful not to step on the multiple plates of hot wings smeared over the floor. Her boys weren't capable of this much damage in only twenty four hours… or was it just always like this? Obviously living in a place that had felt a little new invention called soap had re-sensitized her to the sight of Mammoth's boxers weaved together to make a tent.

She quietly pushed open the door to the kitchen. _Focus Jinx._ This was no time to question the obvious downward spiral her life had taken. She knew it was wishful thinking to hope the team hadn't noticed she had been gone but-

"So, I guess that crud muncher Kid Flash is your pimp now? After you turn your tricks, does he put on a leopard skin hat and take you to give lap dances to Titans East? "

-maybe they would be grateful she had left their pathetic lives. Or not.

Jinx whirled around, giving Gizmo her best "I know where you sleep and where the knifes are located, so put two and two together" glare.

"I don't even know what your talking about. Just because you play Grand Theft Auto doesn't give you license to assume that every person you meet makes a living by giving blow jobs on the side. And who said that Kid Flash even talked to me, or that I saw him at all? He's pretty hard to catch up with; it's not exactly like I have him on speed dial or anything." (Jinx: Countess of Puns)

Gizmo turned to stare her down, a fierce " Don't give me that, I pistol whip bitches in Grand Theft Auto" look gracing his own face.

"Well for starters snot brain, you're wearing the Flash fall collection." For the second time in a five hour period, Jinx was being questioned on her choice of wardrobe. She, once again, pointedly crossed her arms over the logo, and hoped this wasn't some kind of growing trend.

"And anyway, we found your note."

"Ohhhhh …" The Wimp Note. Why had she forgotten about the Wimp Note?

" Yeah, Miss _I'm running away forever!-"_

Jinx put her hands on her hips." I don't sound like that. My voiceisn't a high pitched girly squeal, though I can see how you might get that confused considering whenever _you _talk people wonder when you're going to tell them to follow the yellow brick road."

"Well, _I _wouldn't be talking now, Good Bitch of the East. Unless you decided to come _crawling back _after what, eighteen hours-

"I'm _not _crawling back and it has been _twenty four _hours_, _ok. Also, I think you mean Good Bitch of the _North_, not the East, that's where the green one lives, not the one with the bubbles-"

"Well I'm so _glad _you're on the up and up with your Wizard of Oz references." Gizmo sneered, voice dripping with sarcasm. "Because you know every good villainous speech includes a mention to Dorothy and the Tin Man."

Jinx pouted and rolled her eyes at him. If anything tonight, she was _not _about to be baited by a three foot tall bald kid who… actually that description of him was enough of an insult in itself. "I need something from here. Information on someone I need _you_ to get."

"No. If you want something, go and get it yourself. Maybe those dirt licking _Teen Titans _can help you, considering you're sleeping with one of them now."

"I don't even like him! It's just that _his _house isn't a den of filth-" She hissed, gesturing to the rotting milk on the counter.

" Oh yeah, because it's a den of-"

"Who has a den?" SeeMore questioned, pushing open the door. He stopped in his tracks, slowly taking in the scene before him. Gizmo, a vein popping out of his extra shiny forehead. Jinx, looking like an ass. It was times like these when he wondered what direction his life had taken; breaking up cat fights between a midget and a girl who looked like a carnival had threw up on her.

" She does. With Kid Flash, owner of a pimptastic tiger skin hat and cape combo." Gizmo smirked coolly.

"I do not!" Jinx huffed, stamping her foot. "Oh, and now he has a hat _and _a cape made out of _tiger skin_? What does he have next, a revolver made of diamonds?"

"Let's not go so far. You're pretty cheap, I don't he would be able to afford that from what you're bring in."

SeeMore squinted, and moved his head back and forth between the two. Their insults escaladed once again as they began to ignore SeeMore completely. He knew that they would both have to stop sometime, or at least run out of breath, so he-as he had done many times before- sat down to play his favorite game, _What do Jinx and Gizmo Really Mean When They Call Each Other Dogface? _It was one of guessing suppressed emotion, and really the only way to pass the time once Jinx went on the mandatory tangent about how life would be so much easier if she possessed pink mascara_. _

"How do you know what his house looks like? Have you been stalking him?" What Gizmo really meant: _I don't like you hanging out with his guy. _

" No, I've been gathering research!" Jinx's meaning: _I'm not going to baby you anymore, and I'm trying to do my own thing. So butt out. _

"Research? What type of research involves you whoring it up with a snot nosed ginger? Who's next, that hot alien chick? Because I could get into that." _I'm upset you picked him over us, and I'm open to whatever sexuality you choose. _See More grimaced in confusion. _Wait, what was that last part? _

"I'm not having this discussion with you; you are just going to do as I say, and that will be the end of it. I don't even know why you would care-"

" I don't dogface (For those of you playing at home, here's where you take a shot of vodka) it's just that that stinking Brotherhood of Evil keeps calling-"

"What?" Jinx glanced over at SeeMore. " Is this true?"

Broken out of his reprieve, SeeMore twiddled his fingers and looked at his lap. "Well… yeah they were kind of pissed that you let Kid Flash go … and then disappeared off the face of the earth …. but it's cool now because you're back right? You didn't _really _mean it when you said you were leaving, did you?" He looked at her hopefully and Jinx knew the exact reason why she had tried to avoid her old team in the first place.

"No… I'm not coming back SeeMore. I just need to get something. Hey- maybe my thing and your thing are connected!" Gizmo snorted. Jinx was ready to crush his little bowling ball skull in, but was mildly surprised and fairly pleased when he finally did what she had asked, and went to go boot the computer mainframe.

As ecstatic as one could be with learning that Gizmo had acquired some manners, she was soon taken down a peg when SeeMore coughed anxiously.

"Uh… Jinx… I really think you should move…"

"Move where?" She stepped closer to him and no later had she done that than a loud explosion sounded from behind her. Swigging back around, Jinx noticed that rancid milk remains now littered the area, dripping from the ceiling and spreading across the floor.

SeeMore bit his lip to keep from laughing as Gizmo ducked his head back in. " _Really _got some great handling of your powers there, snot breath. You're the shining example of good leaders everywhere."

With an irritated growl, Jinx finally got her hands to stop glowing fuchsia long enough to storm out of the kitchen in the direction of Gizmo and the computer, with SeeMore brusquely in tow by the collar.

"Well?" She asked, neck craning up towards the large screen.

Gizmo pounded furiously at the keyboard. After a few moments, the display flicked on, and the Brotherhood of Evil logo appeared.

"If you want dirt on someone, good or bad, this is where you would get it. Just because _you_ were too stupid to hack their database system doesn't mean _I _can't get it to work, but it's not like I can keep the stinking portal open forever, so find what you need quick so you can get the hell out of here and stop smelling up the place."

"Sure, it's _me_ who smells…" Jinx sneered, taking control of the keys.

Where to start? She didn't know a name… could they have people sorted by costume? _Wait_, Jinx thought, eyes scanning the monitor, _Sort by Location, this looks promising. _She clicked on the link and scrolled down the short list of names on the roster for Jump City. She and the H.I.V.E. Five were there, of course. Kid Flash too. There were a few other names farther on down who she hadn't even known lived around Jump, like Control Freak and Mad Mod, but still they were all people she recognized. Just as she was about to give up, she glanced one last name, eloquently marked as _?_

Clicking on it, Jinx was led to samurai lady's profile.

_Name: ?_

_Status: _New Recruit

_Original Location: _Rural Japan

_Relocation for Assignment: _Jump City, USA

_Apprentice/Confidante(s): _Yes.

_Mission: _Classified business for Madame Rouge. Top Secret.

For a full five seconds, Jinx started at this information in wonder. So the weird chick with weapons didn't have a name, came from Japan, owned a slave bitch to do her bidding, and was working for Madame Rouge. Her mind was blown past capable function at the joy she felt in finding a clue.

It was like the best day ever had had a demented love child with the worst day ever, and now this horrible, half mutant baby was rampaging through all the _eh _days in between, tainting them with its paradox of elation/misery.

Jinx started to foam at the mouth again.

Her anger was nonsensical, though at the thought of possibly having the Brotherhood stalking her left no room for more than primary emotions. Secondary feelings like angst and pity could wait, there was rage to be had, and look, the universe was even supplying her with warm bodies to slaughter!

SeeMore watched, in slow, terrible motion, as Jinx turned away from the computer. The database link finally closed up and the screen went back, elevating the unnerving mood. Her eyes were bloodshot and with arms outstretched she descended upon Gizmo and him. Was she baring her teeth? Why did she look like a rabid bat? What the hell was happening here?

Basically, if you've ever stared death in the face and realized that that sociopath trying to kill you was your best friend, you would be getting the confusing array of responses SeeMore was now having.

"Jinx, are you ok, do you need to lie down?" SeeMore put out his hands in a gesture of peace. Gizmo rolled his eyes.

She stopped short of the pair. Instead of blowing their heads off, like SeeMore anticipated, she finally sighed, regaining composure. " I need to go home now."

"If you're really worried about no-name we could-" He wasn't actually sure of anything he could do, and was kind of glad when Jinx interrupted him.

"No, I'm fine, I can handle it." She said robotically

"Ok, well… bye?" SeeMore called out as Jinx turned to leave.

If Gizmo hadn't opened his trap at this very instant , the night would have ended on a peaceful, if slightly puzzling and awkward, moment.

Like all nights really should.

But no, then that wouldn't be as interesting. "So now you're going to fight the Brotherhood with the _amazing Kid Flash, _but not before you shack up with him? That's pretty low."

"_What?" _Jinx screeched.

Why Gizmo? We could have all went to bed feeling demoralized, and then started out fresh, albeit a little more dead inside, in the morning! Why did you have to ruin our beautiful numbness?

"You heard me. Of course, what are you going to tell him now that you're visiting with known criminals and don't even bring us cruddy flowers, or handcuffs. You know I've always wanted a pair of those." SeeMore felt like banging his head against the wall, and then poking out his own eye. Was he the only one that saw through Gizmo's misguided and frankly half assed attempt to get Jinx to stay?

"Who says Kid Flash even needs to know about this? I'm competent, damn it!" Apparently, yes, yes he was the only one.

"Yeah, the milk spewed all over the kitchen thinks you're competent too."

Jinx's face contorted into a puckered frown, which made SeeMore question his knowledge of human muscle structure. (Admittedly, he knew little of the subject, but are faces really supposed to make a circle in on themselves?) Finally she said, "If this place didn't have central air, I would be taking your air conditioner right now," which See More hoped was a tactic to confuse Gizmo with something completely random and not the first sign of the apocalypse like he secretly thought it was.

"Have you lost your mind?" Was Gizmo's reply, punctuated with the arrival of Billy Numerous and Mammoth. They were singing an impromptu song in the next hallway over about the different kinds of pie they just had stolen, and served to be an entirely inappropriate backdrop for the Mexican Standoff taking place between Jinx and Gizmo. SeeMore liked to think the score from Star Wars would have made a more suitable theme for this encounter, and it took all of his willpower to not start humming it.

"Maybe!" Jinx shouted in a way that told everyone in the immediate vicinity that the jury wasn't out on _that _question anymore.

All SeeMore could mumble was a weak "See you later…" as Jinx stormed outside into the night.

* * *

She felt the familiar gust of wind, but didn't look up as he slid in the seat beside her. " Not very popular around here, are you." Jinx huffed and finally moved to glare at Kid Flash, shaking her head as he eyed up the opposite side of the Jump City bus, crowded with slightly bewildered and cowering passengers.

"It's late. What are you doing here?" Annoyance colored her tone and there was a audible _crack _from the growing chink in the window.

"I was about to ask you the same question. Funny how you always like to travel around at night." His voice was nonchalant, though there was an underlying feeling there that she was too tired to evaluate. _Maybe later… _

" Villain thing …" She mumbled before catching herself and starting again. " Well… old villain thing."

Kid Flash admired the neon lights that flew by bus for a moment, lips quirking up in a smile. " Totally understand - well, not about the villain part, but, the night thing. I have a few friends who are the exact same way."

Jinx was about to question him, but he quickly changed the subject. "So… how was shopping? I really appreciate all the free advertising you're giving me but still…"He nudged her leg playfully with his and she scooted closer to the window, the bus's cool metal side giving her chills. (Yup, it was totally the bus…)

" It was … good. For some reason, I was taken by the need for hot pink bellbottoms, and it all kind of went down hill from there." She talked into her lap, unwilling to look him in the eye. Was this what remorse felt like? _Wait, what was she saying?_ _Get a grip girl. _He wasn't her keeper, and it wasn't exactly like she was a hero. Why the hell did she need tell him _anything _about her visit to the H.I.V.E. Five, or even about how she _might _have just been targeted by the Brotherhood of Evil? These were just all isolated incidents, right? Nothing that she needed to go crying about to _some guy _she had just met what seemed like _five minutes ago. _(The height of hypocrisy: she was sleeping on his couch.) She wasn't some princess who needed to be saved every day by the knight in shining armor.

The bus lurched to a stop, though Jinx wasn't paying much attention at all. _Gizmo was wrong. Kid Flash doesn't have to know about any of this; I can handle it myself … _Suddenly, a hand grabbed at her hood, pulling up over her face, and next thing she knew, her head rested on his shoulder, arm cradling her to his side.

" What the hell are you doing speed freak," Jinx hissed, trying to break free from Kid Flash's surprisingly strong grip.

" Just pretend you're asleep," he murmured back, and rather abruptly a light was shone in both their faces. She shut her eyes tightly against the glare as Kid Flash began to speak.

" Evening, officers." _Oh shit, police _Jinx though frantically. Getting arrested at two a.m. makes you look like a skank to everyone else in the jail.

"You're the new hero right, the one covering for the Titans?" One of them asked gruffly, and she felt him tense under her as the light shined brighter. She buried her face in his side, and hoped to god this wasn't going to send the wrong message.

"Yeah… is something up?"

One of the policemen cleared his throat. Jinx felt his eyes boring into her, though he didn't say anything.

"There have been a few robberies in the area, and we just wanted to ask you to keep an eye out. Saw you from the street..." The raspy voice trailed off. _Oh damn it, where are we?_ This wasn't near-

" Girlfriend?" The other man asked, and like that Jinx's thoughts had derailed, feebly trying to attempt not to hex anything into oblivion. _Kid Flash, if you say something stupid, so help me I will-_

" No-just a friend. She's not a superhero or anything, if that's what you're getting at. She's… just a friend." Oh. Well that could be considered an acceptable- " Of course she's completely capable of heroic deeds if she wanted to, but that's really besides the - ow!" Kid Flash jumped slightly as crackling pink sparks singed his ribcage. Jinx couldn't help but smirk.

" Well, we really must get back to out patrol … you… you… keep a lookout, alright?" Raspy Voice stammered a little too quickly, obviously freaked out by the amazing Boy with Pink Sparklers. Jinx could feel the floor vibrate as his boots clomped up the center aisle towards the door.

"Sure, will do!" Kid Flash replied with more than enough cheer necessary for this time of night.

The second cop turned to follow his partner, but stopped, swigging back around to face the pair. "Hmmm… Your friend sure looks familiar…" McNosy Cop breathed.

"She gets that a lot. Very common face structure, you know." _Pushing it again Kid Flash. _

There was an awkward pause. Jinx felt his fingers drum against her side, and wondered idly if he was just going to grab her and make a run for it. After what seemed like five lifetimes, McNosy finally took what she knew had to be the retina bleeding grin Kid Flash was flashing (The Countess of Puns makes a return!), and joined his partner once more outside.

The bus squealed in protest as it started to move, and she felt him sink into her weight. " That was close." Kid Flash said brightly. They sat like that for a while, to the odd stares of the other passengers, until Jinx could no longer take the question nagging at her mind.

"Well… Aren't you going to ask me?" She sighed to the yellow spandex of his shoulder.

"Ask what?" He sounded clueless, which made Jinx want to hex him through the wall yet again.

" About the robbery. You're talking to a not-villain here."

"Oh, um… did you see anything suspicious?"

"No," That was a lie. " Don't you want to know if I did the stealing? I'm still capable of mindless acts of violence and stupidity, you know."

"Nope, I'm cool." His lips popped on the _P_, infuriating her even more.

" So you're doubting I could inflict terrible bodily harm onto anyone anymore?" A pink glow cast eerie lights on the grimy chrome floor, and the collective on the other side of the bus shifted uneasily.

"I'm not doubting, I just know you would never do that."

"Well why the hell not?"

"Because I trust you not to."

The initial shock of that statement left her speechless. She desperately grabbed in her mind for an emotion, _any emotion, _to fill the gap. Oh, hello Fury. Where have you been all day?

"Wait wait wait … you… _trust me not to_. Really? So now the magical gift of your trust is something that's going to make unicorns fly out of the sky, dust me with golden sparkles, and carry me away to the land of good and plenty? Where I'll never hurt anything ever again? Correct me if my thinking is off."

" If you want to see it that way-"

"Oh, you better believe I'm going to see it that way."

"I'm just saying I know you. And I know when the time is right, you'll make the right choices." He looked down at her and raised his eyebrows, head nodding piously.

"… You just sounded so lame right there. Like an after school special." She snorted.

"When everyone around you is making these big epic speeches about friendship and purity every time someone eats the last bag of potato chips, it'll rub off on you eventually."

Jinx paused to ponder this." Once, Billy preached to me about how I should have saved the last bag of potato chips we had for him, instead of eating it myself, because we were such good friends."

"Did you take anything from it?"

"I took that the noise my fist makes when connected to Billy's face kind of sounds like a lion roaring, which boosted my ego then, as it still does to this day."

Kid Flash's laugh rumbled against her, and away from his sight she smiled. Just a bit.

So wrapped up in her thoughts of punching people, trust issues, and minor dehydration, (she never did find her juice) Jinx never noticed that Kid Flash was holding her close the entire bus ride home.

* * *

A/N: I don't know how my little filler chapter ended up being a ten page monstrosity in Word and actually the most important chapter thus far.

I like to think it's because I don't like cheaping you guys out. In reality, it's probably because that little filler chapter went into three seperate rewrites, where I finished the chapter and realized I hated it, so then laziness won out, and I just thought it best to skip ahead.

Quality control is the reason why it took so long, I mumble to myself at night.

...And... it also has something to do with the fact that I had a complete fangirl meltdown after I started watching_ Young Justice_. (_OMG, Kid Flash and Cheshire?_ I shouted to YouTube at three a.m. It was like the miracle of watching a child being born, only with less gore and more spastic jumping. )

On a more story related note, this whole thing takes place in early summer, because I want it to. Also, the sword lady's apprentice is canon, and will show up more in later chapters.

I am so very excited for when that happens.


	6. Snappy Snap

In Jinx's long and illustrious history of being resiliently bizarre, she had been privy to many a awkward moment. Sometimes these moments of soul crushing humiliation were caused by her.

If _sometimes _was a secret code that stood for all the damn time.

Let's face it, with her 'set on fire first, ask questions later' approach to friendship, coupled her tendency to shun most human contact that didn't involve dancing on table tops, our little pink haired un-villain wasn't that well equipped to deal with situations that didn't include, well, committing arson or dancing on table tops.

At this stage in her life, she had just come to accept and even revel in that, yes, over the course of the night she probably _is _going to walk into a few rooms where people _are_ having sex, and yes, one of them _might _be her history teacher from freshman year, and _maybe _when she goes to tell everyone about how Mrs. Johansson is totally cheating on her husband, she _may_ push someone who annoys her down the stairs in front of their mother.

In truth, these were all the highlights of her junior prom.

Still, most of the time, it was _she _who embarrassed _other people _with her general attitude of not caring for petty things like _feelings _or _basic decency_. So what if I have never spoken to you before, if you take your mother as your prom date _you deserve to be pushed! _

But, it was a another story entirely when Jinx set about making an idiot of herself.

"Uh … Good morning to you too?"

Jinx looked up, dropping the splintered remains of the coffee table and backing away towards the couch in a manner that said 'It is inconceivable for you to think that I would break such a handsome piece of furniture, nor do I have any problem whatsoever with your sexy, sexy décor choices.'

Kid Flash fought to hide his grimace, stepping through the apartment door's threshold. His gaze traveled across the floor, scanning the smoking, shattered wreckage of that thing he used to like to put his feet up on. He turned wide-eyed to Jinx, who once again, was going to deny all involvement. ( At least they could never fault her for her perseverance.)

"It's not morning, is it?" She craned her neck to the window. "The sky's still dark."

"Eh, it's two a.m., close enough, right?" He got even closer to her. She stared at her nails.

"So … um … Do you want to talk about this?" He gestured around vaguely.

"Talk about what?"

"Um …" He shrugged. "The systematic destruction of everything I have come to … enjoy?" His words weren't accusatory, even though they should have been. She frowned.

"What destruction?" She glanced around quizzically. "Everything looks completely fine to me." Jinx nudged a fragment of wood behind her with her foot.

"… Of course it does…" He finally mumbled. Speeding off, he returned a few seconds later with a broom and a garbage bin.

Jinx sat on the couch as Kid Flash picked his way through the debris, gathering her sweatshirt from off the armrest. They had been through this routine a few times over the last week, with him coming home or entering a room only to find that he was now down one vase, or a picture frame, or a wall of cabinets.

It wasn't her fault really, her powers starting to go slightly out of whack. At least she didn't think it was her fault.

Because when you factor in stress, and not sleeping well, and having multiple parties advocating your death and all-

Well, ok, maybe all, of those things were caused by her, and maybe she was over embellishing the stress and the death _just a little, _but what else could it be? She was _always _in control of her powers. And when she wasn't, at least she had faked that she was long enough to be put in charge of a team.

A team of morons, sure, but everyone had to start somewhere, right?

…Or maybe they had just wanted to placate her so she wouldn't splatter them against a wall when she had a freak out.

She clenched and unclenched her fists, pushing down the wave of pink sparks that had begun to dance at her fingertips.

"You ok?" He dared to touch her shoulder, and she shrugged away from him, standing up.

"I'm fine." The room was clean now. There were some advantages to having someone around who could move at the speed of light.

He looked conflicted, which was a usual occurrence after one of these incidents. She could tell he wanted broach the subject with her, but was afraid that if he did she would get skittish run back to her peopleor villains or whatever.

Whoever the fuck they were at this point.

So then, what was a speedster to do when faced with uncomfortable circumstances?

"I'm beat." He said after a moment, yawning. "Wanna go get some pizza?"

She smiled for the first time that morning. " I like pizza."

* * *

The waitress snapped her gum at pair, only rolling her eyes and stalking off to the kitchen when Wally ordered four separate pizza pies. She should be really used to it by now, the two came here often, always under the cover of darkness, and never as their super counterparts.

Besides, it wasn't like the place was filled to the brim with shouting customers waving gold bars at her either.

Jinx sunk deeper into the hood of her sweatshirt, tucking the strands of hair that fell out back into place. She still wasn't sure how he had the money to eat like he did, like a starved rhinoceros. There were times that she could remember when she couldn't even steal the amount of food for the _week _that he ate in one sitting.

Frankly, she had never been as disgusted and enthralled at the same time then when she went out to eat with Wally West.

He had leaned forward now, elbows resting on the table. She ignored him, opting instead to stare out the window and up at the ceiling intermittently. Oh, see the blue car going by? Doesn't that crack in the ceiling look kind of like Robin's hair, all spiky and desperate? And oh look, the drunks are puking in the back alley, how precious.

After a while, she couldn't take it anymore. She turned to his stare. "Take a picture, why don't you; it's less likely to kick your ass."

He grinned. "Aw, come on Jinxy, you don't mean that."

"_Don't _call me Jinxy."

" Well then what am I supposed to call you then? Jinx?" He was indignant.

"You act like that's the most shocking of revelations."

…Was he actually pouting at her? Damn it! "But that isn't fun."

"Life isn't fun."

He had leaned in even closer from across from her, and was absentmindedly tracing the lines of her palm, which she had just carelessly rested on the table forgetting she was dealing with He Who Knows Not The Concept of Personal Space.

"So … it's just Jinx. No Jinxy, no Hexer, no Flippy, no nothing?" His fingers were warm and caloused and she bit back a shiver. _Stay annoyed. _

"No. Nothing but Jinx."

He paused in his palm reading for a moment. She was relieved, but there was another feeling, one that she couldn't place. _Revulsion? _No, the accompanying wave of nausea wasn't there. It felt more…fuzzy, she guessed.

Or it could just be that her greater mental capacity was having a breakdown from all the food she did not consume in the last twenty four hours.

Wally started up again, his fingertips dancing along hers. "So like… Jinx _is _your name?"

She eyed him warily. "What do you mean by that?"

"It's _not _like a _nickname_, is it?" His tone was light, but his eyes kept on darting to and away from her.

She lurched her hand out of his grasp, surprising the both of them when a vicious snarl escaped from her lips. From the kitchen, the sound of glass crashing to the floor reverberated throughout the diner, complemented by gratuitous cursing from the cook.

Jinx gripped down hard on the table, as if holding onto it for dear life. Her voice didn't waver as she spoke to him, even if reigning in her powers was like trying to reign in Mammoth during a particularly bad pie withdrawl.

"Here's hardly the place to talk about that," she said slowly, quietly. He looked remorseful and confused and like he was thinking- which was never a good thing.

But, as taken from prior experience, we know he was little to no self preservation instict.

Perhaps with a death wish, he pressed onward. "…So you _do_ have a …" He glanced around again. "…Other name." He leaned in closest yet, whispering. "A real one."

He shrank back into the seat as her renewed glared bored into him. "I mean, you don't have to tell me, if you don't want. I'm just curious."

She sat back straight. "You know if you were anyone else, you would be dead now, right?"

"Aw, so you're saying I'm special?"

"No," she hissed. "I'm saying that where I come from, that's just not a question you ask."

Wally drummed his fingers on the table top. "Well where I come from, we trust our team like family."

"Villains and heroes are different," she averted her eyes. "In villainy, the bonds are weaker. It's ourselves first, and everybody else second, no matter what kind of relationship you have with them. If you have the opportunity to get ahead, whether if you know their true identity or where they came from or whatever, you take it." She sighed. "No matter the consequences."

"It doesn't have to be like that, heroes-"

"I know, I know, ok?" Jinx rolled her eyes. "I've heard the pitch before. But this is just the way I live, the _only _way I know how to live, and by now not revealing anything about myself is automatic, like breathing."

"But why?" He questioned. "Don't you want to get close to anyone, to have people know the real you?"

"No. I don't." Her thoughts flashed to Gizmo and Mammoth. They knew her real name, and look how well that turned out. Once again, normal human contact wasn't exactly her forte. "The people I get close to rarely…make it out… unscathed."

His eyebrows shot up. "If this only about your powers, I'm sure with a little practice you can control them a whole lot better. Maybe the Titans-"

"I can control my powers just fine." She waved her hands around in the air. "See, total control!" With irritation, Jinx crossed her arms. "No need to get the Titans involved."

By then the waitress had returned, balancing the four pizzas with some sort of magical waitress talent that didn't include growing a third arm. She set them down and disappeared again, leaving Wally and Jinx to deal with their blatant, awkward sexual tension.

They ate in relative silence, save for the vaccum sound that seemed to be emitting from Wally's mouth as he downed three and a half pizzas like there was prize money involved .

"You shouldn't have told me your name," Jinx said causally, not looking up from her plate. "You know if this not stealing thing doesn't work out, I can turn around and use it against you, right?"

"Like I said before, I trust my team like family." He shot back through a mouthful of pepperoni.

"Let me reiterate: I'm not a part of your team. There is no team, it's me over here, and you over there and sometimes I take money from your wallet -but you don't say anything- and that is our relationship."

He shrugged. "Close enough for me."

"I'm dangerous." She reasoned with him. "I hurt people for fun all the time. I'm _out of control, woooooo._"

"I handle danger everyday. Live for it even."

She paused. "You're the most masochistic idiot that I've ever met. And I've known people who think slamming themselves into doors is a sport."

Wally had the audacity to smirk at her. "It's one of my better qualities."

They finished eating. He reached into his sweatpants pocket, taking out a wad of bills. Wally was methodical in his counting, setting the money down in a neat stack and leaving a generous tip.

"You're not even going to wait for her to bring the check?" Jinx wiped her mouth with a napkin, standing up.

"Nope." He rose as well. "Perhaps I feel a little Batman-y; want to vanish into the night. Maybe I'll even take it a step further and not use the door."

He smiled cheekily at her, making a move to phase through the wall. She sighed, grabbing his arm and pulling him towards the exit. "What, does Batman have as terrible aim as you? Sails through the window because his Bat Hook missed the gate?"

The two stepped out onto the street, and she dropped his arm. "What can I say, the Man of Bat is too cool for doors."

"How can one be too cool for doors? From a financial standpoint that's just impractical."

" But it's so true. The Flash says that sometimes the League will be fighting some dude, right, when all of a sudden the Batman will just come causally crashing through the ceiling like the master of the night and completely scare the living hell out of everyone."

Passing under a street lamp, Jinx looked up thoughtfully. "I should try that some time. Drop in through the ceiling with a big explosion, and then be all 'Why is everyone freaking out? Oh that? That was just my entrance. Yes, I did make a deal with a firework company, thank you for noticing.'"

Chuckling, he subtly steered her away from tripping into a puddle that she had ended up in front of, taking her towards the sidewalk. Jinx barely noticed.

* * *

The spent toothpaste circled the drain in swirling patterns, crisscrossing the sink. Wiping her mouth with the back of her hand, she moved out of the bathroom. The empty space where the coffee table should have been left a pang in her head, but she shook it off. She'd deal with her powers later. That was all she ever seemed to be doing these days, dealing with things later.

She really hoped his short attention span wasn't starting to rub off on her.

Speaking of Wally, where was he? She had been in the bathroom for _maybe _five minutes getting dressed for bed, but knowing him, he could literally be _anywhere _right now.

There was a _whoosh _of wind, and then inexplicably it was Kid Flash who stood before her.

"I thought you were going to go to sleep."

"Oh… well… uh…I… just got a call." He said distractedly. "Need to go run a favor for someone."

"But you already did patrol earlier." Eyes narrowing, she crossed her arms over her chest. "Is this for the Titans or something?" _I hope to God this isn't about Mrs. Last Samurai… _

"Ah… no…not exactly - in a general sense." Kid Flash really didn't want to leave her here alone again. She seemed pretty vulnerable, or at least more receptive to him, which was rare. And there was all his remaining possessions to think about, all of which he rather liked and wished to not get destroyed in a fiery blast.

Even more still, he wanted to get closer to cracking her ice queen exterior and finding out her name.

Frozen where he stood, he weighed his options. What seemed like a less than a second to Jinx was actually the greatest war on indecision ever to be waged, complete with brooding and staring moodily off into the distance.

Robin would have been proud.

_You know what? _Kid Flash finally decided. _The Flash can wait, there is a hot girl in my apartment and she needs comforting. That is the ultimate trump card for anything he can throw at me, short of being actively fried by lasers. _

He gave pause.

_No, he could probably outrun the lasers if he set his mind to it. _

He turned to face her. " I can stay if you want me to. It isn't that important for me to go." Was it truly that important? Yes, yes it was. But really: The. Hot. Girl. Needed. Comforting.

…For his uncle that excuse _probably _wasn't going to fly, seeing how much thin ice he was on already, but his other option- wanting to crack the code of a icy ex-villainess- wasn't going to win him any good behavior points either.

"No, you can go. I'm happy to see you leave." Jinx was most certainly _not _happy to see him leave, and hated herself for it. _Why does he always keep on disappearing whenever I am about to do something stupid? _Was he testing her with some sort of passive aggressive mixture of flirting, protectiveness, and large chunks of unsupervised time? _The best kind of passive aggressive. _

"That was a rhetorical statement." He was gone and back in an instant, changed into a tank top and boxer shorts.

She busied herself with opening the pull out bed, masking the (loathed for all eternity) grin that was creeping across her face with a smirk.

"They always are."

* * *

The 'waitress' wriggled out of her apron, carelessly throwing it in the corner. The night cook had gone home moments ago, and daylight was going to bring a whole new set of eyes that she didn't want watching her.

Reaching into one of the small storage lockers, she took out her mask, her slow smile soon covered up by metal and paint. _Ah_, _that's better. _

On the way out the door she stopped by the pantry, quickly slashing the ropes that bound the real- albeit unconscious-night waitress. Usually the girl in the mask never was one for releasing her victims before their due but, she was in a good mood after all.

She strolled out the back door, keeping close to the wall. The girl felt well, not _bad _exactly, maybe pity- for that pink haired girl. What was her name again, Jinxy? Jinx. She felt pity for Jinx.

_So much potential, wasted. _Even more valuable than her considerable power, Jinx had good instincts. Not telling that hero her real name, no matter how much rhetoric and playboy charm he tried to dose her with. _Too bad she didn't say his. _To know Kid Flash's secret identity, that would have been a goldmine. Of course she saw his face sans mask, but in reality his mask did little in the way of covering anything up anyway. She snorted. _He should just carry a sign - ginger and proud. _

With ease the girl leaped up onto a fire escape, grabbing the rail. She gracefully bounded up the steps, taking two at a time until she got to the roof. Roofs were always at least fifty percent safer than the ground- it was a known fact.

_No matter. _Who cared if she felt _anything _for her mark, she didn't make the rules, only carried out the orders.

She had got what she had came for and that was all she really _should _be caring about presently.

The sun began to peek over the clouds. Under her mask, the girl smiled. Her Master would be pleased.

* * *

A/N: So I'm back from the hiatus I declined to announce. What of it?

Ok. I'm ... sorry. It was mean of me. I ask forgiveness.

I tried to update faster, I really did. This is actually rewrite number eight of this chapter, and I'm still a little ... iffy on it. Nothing with clicking, and I couldn't just skip over this because it kind of sets things up and-

I can tell no one really cares. That is fine, I deserve it.

Well, anyway, sorry this one is a bit of a downer. Tried to make it interesting at the end at least. The girl in the mask is a familiar face, and really she's not that hard to figure out considering there are like, twelve girls in total on the show, with only three of them wearing masks.

Also, good news everyone: The next chapter is already half written, and way funnier than this one! I know, shocking isn't it?

It's pretty KF centric, mainly because I needed a break from writing Jinx's neurotic doublespeak, and Flash is _really _holding back when it comes to the snark around her, which I just couldn't take any more.

Plus, Speedy's there, which makes anything automatically three times better.


	7. Interlude Thy Name is Kid Flash

"So Kid Flash - we meet again."

"I feel _meet_ is a rather a subjective term. By saying that we are meeting again, you are implying that we exchanged greetings and pleasantries _before_ you went about tackling me." Kid Flash shook his head, feeling slightly dizzy. "I would consider this more an _ambush _than a _meeting_."

Trickster paused in his pacing for a moment. He was never really a fan of the signature Flash banter, and hated coming up with responses to such purposefully distracting statements. But damn it, he was not about to be outwitted. By a seventeen year old. In yellow spandex.

He glanced upward at Kid Flash. " Well I would say that it was quite _pleasant _to finally get a hit on you, if that answers you question."

"I wasn't asking a question-"

"No matter!" Trickster shouted, continuing his pacing once again. "I have won and you have lost and I will no longer have to play your little mind games." He wiggled his fingers.

Kid Flash sighed. With Trickster it was best to go for the soft approach. The next words he spoke he tried to make as non-threatening as possible." Tricky, what's going on? Did Captain Cold kick you out of Central's Villain's Association again? Had the urge to tie me up and hang me upside down over a vat of boiling plastic because you're not on union time anymore, huh? "

"No," Trickster huffed snootily. "I quit because no one was _respecting my contributions!_" He said, voice growing shrill.

"We've talked about this. Personally I think it's the hat-"

"_What's wrong with my hat!_" Trickster screeched. "It is fashionable!"

"I'm not denying that it is."

"It is completely fashionable." Trickster mumbled to himself once again, turning to a control panel.

"Uh, Tricky, what are you doing?" The rope Kid Flash was tied to swung in circles against the steam from the vat. He was starting to get nauseous.

"Turning you into a rubber chicken." Trickster stated confidently, as if mentioning he taken a walk that afternoon.

Kid Flash frowned. "Why?" He was used to dealing with the Trickster's nonsense at this point, but even for a guy who specialized in prop comedy villainy, this was a bit out there.

"Why? More like, _'Why has no one thought of this before?_"

"Because it doesn't make a lick of sense."

The jester sighed. "I don't know. My shrink says I need to channel my passions more positively." He flipped a switch and Kid Flash started to slowly be lowered into the hot goo. "Thanks for referring me to him, by the way."

_Alright, enough screwing around._ Being encased in plastic certainly wasn't going to do any good for anyone, nor did he want to die. _Not in a joke factory _he thought. _I made a vow. _

Faster than Trickster could react Kid Flash vibrated out of the ropes, grabbing hold of the end before he fell in the molten liquid. He scrambled to the top, swinging the entire cable like a vine. Gaining enough momentum, he let go and flew off to land beside the vat on the floor.

Trickster, never one for scheming ahead, had no real escape plan for when the very likely scenario of Kid Flash breaking free of his bindings occurred.

"All right dude, let's get this over with." Kid Flash stood up, dusting himself off.

It was there that Trickster decided on the spot that the best course of action was to run like hell and flail his limbs indiscriminately at random intervals.

"Ahhhhh!" Trickster shrieked, doing the aforementioned run/flail combo.

Kid Flash felt bad for him.

Not bad enough to refrain from kicking his ass though.

He sped forward to strike, when suddenly he was knocked back by another blur, causing him to sail into a pile of joke teeth.

He crawled his way out, picking the biting choppers off his costume as he went. "Who's your friend?" He called to Trickster irritably.

"Someone you know well." A powerful, albeit slightly annoyed voice, responded.

Kid Flash's eyes widened, and he moved back a few steps. "Oh, the Flash, back so soon I see."

Flash held a wriggling Trickster aloft by the collar. "The stakeout ended early tonight. " He was gone and returned in an instant, sans one psychotic villain. "We're close to taking down one of the biggest weapons black markets in the world."

"That's nice." Disinterest colored Kid Flash's tone. The Justice League was always on the verge of taking down _the biggest this _or _the largest that_. Nothing to break out the marching band for.

"So how have things been going here? It's nice to know that I have someone to look after the place while the League and I go on these nightly witch hunts."

Kid gestured around, not meeting Flash's eyes. "Well, as you may have noticed, everything's been fine here. Central City has been well looked after. There are no villains running amok, nor chaos in the streets, and nothing has been set alight, like you thought there would be with me in charge. And uh…yeah…everything's …everything's doing pretty good, I would say."

"Well, it's been fun talking to you but I really must be going…to save some lives. Or uh, maybe get a sandwich." He began to stroll out the door.

"Wally, don't think you're getting off that easily." Flash spoke quietly behind him.

Kid froze. "I have absolutely no clue what you're talking about. "

" The fact that you haven't stepped foot in this _state, _much less the city in the past few days starting to ring any bells?"

"A few."

"Alright. C'mon." Flash grabbed Kid's wrist, pulling him through the steel factory doors and out into the early morning.

"Kind of invading my personal bubble there, esteemed Uncle."

" Don't even start Wallace."

"Whoa. Parental."

The Flash's muscles tensed as he prepared to run. "I'm taking you back to the house."

* * *

"I'm disappointed in you. I hope that's clear."

"I figured that you would be." Kid Flash said nonchalantly, thumbing through a stack of envelopes on the counter. He pulled one out of the pile and held it up the quaint kitchen window, letting the moonlight illuminate the neat print. _Wayne Enterprises. _

He looked up at the Flash and waved the letter, grinning. "How cool is it that I get checks from the Batman now?"

Flash was unimpressed. "Just because you're on Titan payroll now doesn't mean you still don't have duties in Central. You know, _your home city. _That I'm _letting _you help protect_._"

"Only nights when you're running these JLA errands, when barely anyone's out anyway." Kid Flash muttered dismissively, tucking the paper into his suit. "But if it means that much to you, I won't skip again. I get it, okay, it's a big deal."

Flash just closed his eyes. "For some reason I don't think you understand." Kid Flash was rummaging through the fridge now. _There is never getting anything through to this kid. _

But, unfortunately, talking sense into dear Wallace had to be _someone's _job.

…The things he did to please his wife.

The Flash tried again. "Ignoring your responsibilities is never the right thing Wally."

"But I'm not ignoring _per se_. I'm more like… prioritizing." He bit into his sandwich.

"…Prioritizing." The Flash said flatly. "In what order are you putting everything in? Does it go: _first, protect Jump City, second, eat Uncle Barry's lunch for tomorrow," _Kid contemplated the sandwich. " _Third, polish boots, _and then finally _fourth, maybe check in on Central, see how they're doing?_"

Kid Flash didn't want to admit to anything, but yeah, pretty much that was the way it had been going down for him lately.

"Well - I wouldn't say that is my exact set of plans." Which wasn't a lie. Uncle Barry had forgot to add _harboring a dangerous criminal _to the list.

Not that the mighty Flash needed to be corrected on that. Some things it just best to leave him in the dark on.

Flash sighed, his annoyance dissipating with the breath. "Look, I think it's great and all that Robin has let you watch over his city, and that the two of you have begun to make up-"

"We've never not been made up. What would give you the impression that weren't, like, Bff m-dog bros?"

"Well, you haven't spoken to each other for two years; I'm sorry if I was under the _crazy assumption _that the both of you were in the middle of a fight." Flash glanced upward. "And do I even want to know what Bff m-dog bros stands for?"

Kid Flash waved his hand "Pshhh. I was ready to talk any time that he was." He reached up and grabbed a protein bar from the cabinet behind him. "Dude can be so stubborn sometimes though, y'know?"

"Well you did have a hand in the destruction of the first team he ever led."

Kid fiddled with the energy bar's wrapper. " It wasn't a team in the technical sense. We were just a bunch of sidekicks that the main heroes didn't want tagging along after the main JLA was formed." He huffed out and slouched.

"Come now," They had had this conversation many times before. "You were a team. More than that, you were all friends. You, Robin, Speedy and Aqualad and even Wondergirl. You've got to admit at least that training together on the Watchtower was good for all of you."

"All we did was train." He said morosely, mouth sliding to a pout of epic proportions.

"Well it was good for you. You probably still wouldn't be able to phase through matter without their help."

"Yeah…but…" The wrapper crinkled as he wound it around his fingers. "It wasn't as if we were _protecting _anyone up in space. No one counted on us for much."

"_Noooooo_…No. The League…counted on you…for stuff? And um…space was cool! It's cool to live in space these days…right?"

Kid Flash snorted. "You're such an old guy."

Flash rolled his eyes. "Still not too old enough to see through you playing the sympathy card."

Biting his lip, Kid ran his fingers through his hair sheepishly. "What gave me away?"

"You always pull out the pouting and the _you left me to rot on Watchtower _excuse whenever you want to distract me." Flash shrugged. "Really Wall, it's time you thought of something else to guilt me with."

"But it's so _harrrrrd." _Kid Flash whined, jumping up to sit on the counter. "Can't I just keep using that one and you give me a pass?"

Flash chuckled. "I don't know what's so hard about thinking." Smiling at Kid slyly, he leaned against a wall. "Although, coming from you, it's not completely surprising."

"I think about stuff." Kid protested, ducking his head.

"Like what?"

"Uh… quantum physics." He declared finally.

"Ah yes I see. Now Professor, is this before or after you think about girls and how to meet girls and anything in general pertaining to females?"

"Before, usually. Sometimes after if I didn't see anyone." Kid Flash stated thoughtfully.

"So then I take it that people of the opposite sex are on the list of priorities as well?"

"No - no way. You know I'm totally not like that anymore." He gave a little bow. "I am a gentleman now, of the highest order. Haven't you heard?"

"Sure you are. And I'm Superman and your Aunt Iris is Wonder Woman and I can go get you a top hat and we _all_ can play pretend in the backyard on the weekend."

"I'm serious." Indeed he was. Just look at all he had not accomplished in the month he was in Jump already! He had not gone to any clubs. He not kissed any girls. He had not kissed any girls while in any clubs.

Somebody give this boy a medal - he had not done _so_ many things in _so_ many places!

"Sure you are Wallace."

"I am." Suddenly he was peeking around his uncle into the living room. "Hey, speaking of Aunt Iris, do you think she'd be mad if I woke her up to say hello?"

"No, she loves to see you-especially these days-but …I'm going to have to advise against it." The Flash gently led Kid back into the kitchen.

"Why?"

"Because you being away worries her a lot more then she lets on, and you not having come around for the past couple of days is making her … well, a tad bonkers."

"So I'll convince her that I just lost track of the time or something, no big deal." He started to move towards the door, but Flash blocked his path.

"Trust me, I'm doing you a favor." Flash seemed to be looking for the right words. "Let's just say your Aunt is a little … upset with you right now, and it's probably not the best idea for you to have your … confrontation while the rest of the neighborhood is sleeping."

"How upset is 'a little' ?" Kid asked.

"Well…" The Flash trailed off awkwardly. "Upset enough to want you to come back from Jump early."

Kid Flash grimaced. "She can't do that! Rob would kill me if I left his city in the lurch like that." There was also Jinx to think about. She didn't have any other place to go, and he didn't think anyonewould appreciate him causally bringing a plus one back to Central.

"I know, I told her that. But it doesn't really help your case when you disappear off the map for a few days."

Kid sighed. "That's the price to pay with super speed - everyone wants you to visit them all the time just because you can be there in two seconds flat."

The Flash continued. "I told her I would give you a stern talking to calm her down." He gestured around weakly. "And so here I'm am… talking to you…_sternly_. Right?"

"What, oh, huh, yeah. Very stern. You were very harsh Uncle Barry, really gave me what for! I won't ever skip out on patrol again!" Kid Flash grinned and made a thumbs up sign.

"Wally, please get out of my house."

"Alright, I'll finish patrol around here, let you get some sleep." He walked toward the back kitchen door opened it. Kid Flash turned around to face his uncle. "May the Speed Force be with you, Master He-Who-Kills-Joy."

"And also with you young He-Who-Runs-With-Idiocy."

"Right back at you He-Who-Doesn't -"

"Wally, _get out_."

* * *

"Yeah, so we're going to be a few more weeks." A gruff voice cracked over the communicator. "Robin told Bumble Bitch not to tell you, to keep you on your toes, but I couldn't leave you hanging like that man."

"Thanks Speedy," Kid Flash rounded a street corner, careful to keep his pace even. He couldn't talk to anyone while in hyper speed without sounding like a rabid squirrel, and finishing his beat was taking him _forever._

"You sound pissed for a guy who just got a free warning." Speedy snickered. "Gives you more time to hide the pink panties and wash the mysterious stains out of the rug."

Groaning, Kid Flash stopped to lean on a streetlight post. "Don't even start with that. It's what got me into this whole mess with Rob in the first place."

"Ah yes," Speedy said with mock seriousness. "The Great Wonderpants Incident. It shall live forever in legend."

"I thought we agreed never to talk about that again." Kid paused. "Like how we agreed to never talk about what went down in Rio."

"Don't change the subject!" Speedy snapped. "I hate when you do that." After a moment he continued."Besides, I don't think anyone wants to even _think _about what happened in Rio."

"It's true what that say," Kid sighed wistfully. "You're not really friends with someone until you've secretly worn their underwear around for a couple of days."

A snapping sound emitted from the communicator. "Focus, KF. Stay with me."

"Oh, right." He started walking again, this time heading south. "I can't believe though that he still wouldn't trust me enough to have you guys do a surprise return inspection." He squeezed his hands into fists. "I mean, he trusts me with his city, right?"

Speedy clicked his tongue. "See, my theory is that he trusts you as a hero to y'know, save people and junk, but he _doesn't_ trust you as a _person_ to y'know, not have sex with people and junk."

"But I'm not like that anymore. Why doesn't anyone get that _I'm a goddamn gentleman now!"_

"Because up until a few months ago, if she was hot and under twenty two in the League, there'd be pretty good odds that you did something with her."

"No…Wait a minute." Kid looked upward, deep in thought. "No, that was definitely not the case."

"Let's go through the list, shall we?" From the other end of the line, Kid Flash heard the crumpling of a paper being opened.

"Aw dude, you did not make an actual list list, did you? That's creepy."

Speedy was unapologetic. "Hey, don't do the crime if you don't want people playing that "who swapped spit with who by association" game."

"How bad is it?"

"Between you and me dude…" It sounded like he was smoothing it out. "Basically everyone has kissed everyone."

"Aw man."

"I know. Aqualad was 'appalled at our conduct.'"

"Now then, let's see here." Speedy said with authority, "There's Wondergirl, Supergirl, Miss Martian, Flamebird, The Secret, Arrowette, Aquagirl, Supergirl _again_, random bimbos, random bimbos, third time's the charm with Supergirl huh? Apperently not, because here's some more _random bimbos_-"

"Okay I get it, I've been around the block a few times." Moving towards the city outskirts, Kid Flash yawned.

Speedy sighed in exhaustion. "Whoa, that almost matches my record."

"Damn," Kid snapped his fingers. " And I thought for sure I was going to get the esteemed title of _JLA's biggest whore. _It's right up there with _Man of Steel _and _Latté Fetcher." _

"Hey man. You did have it for a bit." There was a smugness to Speedy's tone. "I haven't been in the League for a while now."

"I hear there's still an opening for that position on the Titans."

"I know." Speedy specified. "I've already applied."

The two burst out laughing at the sheer ridiculousness of the that statement. Kid could always count on Speedy to lighten up his mood, and vice versa.

After Kid Flash had picked himself up off the ground and Bumble Bee had yelled at Speedy to _shut the hell up, some people acutally _do _sleep around here, _they went on for awhile in silence. Scanning the empty streets, Kid stopped every so often to check the time. He wondered idly if Jinx was awake. She seemed to like roaming around the city at night, and he let her, only because he could use it to deflect her questions on what exactly _he _was doing in the wee morning hours.

"So how are things going in Jump anyway?" Speedy said finally. "You really _don't _have mysterious stains on the carpet and pink panties hanging from the ceiling light, do you?"

"No, of course not. I'm a changed man." The pink panties were hidden under the pull out bed, as far from his reach as Jinx could manage.

Not that he had looked for them, or anything.

"Stayed on the straight and narrow? Didn't get it on at the break of dawn?"

"Yes! I've been a good boy." Kid huffed in frustration. "Who are you supposed to be, my aunt?"

"Don't get defensive man, I'm only checking-"

"I'm not getting defensive!"

Suddenly having to slow down his breathing, Kid Flash leaned against a wall, squeezing his eyes shut.

The next words Speedy spoke were quiet.

"There's someone, isn't there?"

Thinking about the different methods of handling this (_I could speak to Speedy only in Russian for the rest of my life!_) and ruling that they weren't very …sane, Kid decided to go for the usual plan.

That was to say : Be very vague and non-committal, and pretend like nothing out of the ordinary was going on, even when clearly, you were wearing a lampshade on your head and that was not the case.

"Maybe," He tipped his head back, banging it against the brick.

From the other end of the phone, Speedy sighed. "Who is she this time?"

"I don't know."

"You. Don't. Know." He sighed again, louder now. "Okay. Where did you meet? The Rainbow Sparkle Bar and Grill in Imagination Town?"

"She's real!" Kid Fast spoke sharply. The streetlight above made him squint. "She just won't tell me her real name."

"So she's a stripper," Speedy proclaimed. "Being a real gentleman over there now aren't-"

"She's not a stripper, she's a … hero." Kid said after some deliberation. "Well, at least she's close enough to being one."

"Uh huh. An almost hero."

"She's getting there."

"And I presume you've been flirting with her?" Speedy asked.

"Me _flirting_? Utter Madness."

"You give her the roses?"

"Only a few." Kid said meekly.

"Do the smirking, 'I'm such a sexy man' maneuver?"

"What is that even, I have no idea-"

"Oh come on dude, don't deny it. I've totally seen you do it too."

"Well maybe I've been flirting with her a little, but only on a subconscious level." Kid Flash clarified.

Speedy snorted. "Some people subconsciously bite their nails, or sleepwalk. Only Kid freaking Flash could subconsciously _flirt." _

"It's like second nature to me. I can't help it."

"So how far is this flirtation with being thrown off the team going exactly?"

"Well…"

"Come on spit it out." Speedy made his voice high and girlish. "Tell me now, I want _details!"_

"I think I might love her." Kid Flash confessed matter-of-factly. Maybe he really did. Wow. This was new.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Whoa. Jus- Just whoa. Hold on." The speedster waited patiently as his friend seemed to walk and open up a cabinet. He heard a cork pop, and liquid being poured into a glass. "Okay, I'm back. Sorry, wasn't expecting the L-bomb to be dropped. Had to go collect myself."

"Now," The archer started up again. "You say you love this chick? Were still talking about the one whose name you don't know, right?"

"Yeah, there's just something about her." He sank to the ground, back still up against the wall. "I think she's different then all the rest of those other girls."

"Different." Smacking his lips, Speedy took another gulp.

"Yeah." Kid sounded dreamy. "Out of my usual zone. She's feisty. I kind of like it."

" KF, KF, KF, KF, why I'm I so surprised, because this is such classic KF!" Speedy harrumphed. "Has the list taught you _nothing_!"

"What?" Kid Flash was confused

"You _always _fall hard for a girl you _barely _know!" He took another swig of his drink. "And then, when you're bored, you'll leave her crying and clutching a Flash t-shirt, ready to have the cycle start again."

"But Speedy, that was _before _I became a gentleman. I'm better with that now." He shrugged. "And don't tell me that you haven't enjoyed all the rebound action you get every time that happens."

"While I will admit that chicks can't seem to tell two redheads apart from one another if they were getting paid to," Well there was no denying that. " I- I can't believe I'm actually saying this but- " Taking a deep breath, Speedy thickened his resolve. " I think it's shitty of you to break Rob's trust like that, even if he never actually trusted you in the first place. So like, his phantom trust."

"But wait-" A hissing sound erupted from Kid Flash's communicator, and it took him a second to realize that that static, snake-on-fire sound was coming from Speedy's face.

More hissing. "God, it physically pained me to tell someone that I disapproved of them having sex." Kid heard his teeth clench. "There's a burning in my soul-what the hell is that?"

"I think it's your moral reasoning starting to grow in."

"Is it like this for everyone? No wonder so many heroes are so uptight."

"But wait a minute here," Laying down on the ground, Kid Flash held the communicator aloft. "Technically Rob's alleged trust was not broken."

"It still counts if she only gave you a blow job."

"No man - I mean that I haven't even kissed her yet." Sighing dramatically, Kid put a hand over his forehead. "The fair maiden scorns my advances."

Speedy took another sip. "And how long have you know this girl?"

"It feels like my whole life."

"Okay, so about a month, give or take. Hold on a sec," There was more sloshing noises from the other end of the line. One could only hope that Speedy was drinking soda, though it was unlikely by the turn the conversation had taken.. "Alright. KF, I think I know why this chick is special."

"Because she's awesome and funny and kicks some serious ass?"

"Oh, so that's it! I knew it!" It sounded like Speedy was smirking.

"What?"

"She kicked your ass." The archer was smug.

"Only in the loosest of terms. Metaphorically."

"She wiped the fucking Wal-Mart bathroom floor with you, didn't she?"

"Not that I'm ever going to admit that happened because it did not-"

"So then that's what's keeping your attention! She's playing hard to get. You haven't even seem the inside of her closet, let alone her pants."

Kid kept quiet. Now was _not _the time to bring up said female's living arrangements at the moment.

… No matter how many props he would get.

The archer continued. "So then KF, let's by hypothetical here. Say you _do _- miracle of miracles - get this girl to like you. What happens when Rob - because he's like a spiky haired Big Brother, everywhere you turn, even in the shower, he's _there_- finds out about it? Is she really worth breaking his non-existent trust- your promise to not to get distracted- and getting terminated from the team for?"

"First of all," Kid Flash stood back up. "How can I break his trust if I don't have it in the first place? And second of all, I think this one really _is _different than the rest. And I'm not just saying that this time."

Speedy groaned. "Okay man, I was trying to be classy but it's just going straight over your head." He seemed weary. "Is she bangable?"

"What?-ugh-why? Why the hell is that even an issue?" Kid Flash exclaimed.

"So she isn't hot? This is not fucking amateur hour KF. If you're going _down_, at least go _down_ with a smile on your face! There's only so long you can pull this kind of crap before Robin comes back and puts the kibosh on anything that doesn't involve paperwork and glaring off into the night, and what are you doing? Hanging out with Jump's Crazy Bag Lady Coalition that's what- "

"No dude, she's totally hot."

"For real? This isn't like that time when you said she was hot when in reality her skin was green? Because I seriously cannot swing for that-"

"No, she's like one of those dancer types. Very pretty."

"Well, I guess that at least makes things _a little _better."

Kid Flash wandered past a bank, checking the giant clock face on the front. It was close to four in the morning. " I think it's almost time for me to go back to Jump."

"Alright then. I should probably think about sleeping too."

"But it's almost five where you are, wouldn't it be easier just to stay up?"

"Eh," Speedy threw his glass in the sink. "It pisses off Bumble Bee _and _Aqualad when I sleep through the day. I would call that a win/win situation."

"Sweet dreams then."

"Wait," Clearing his throat, Speedy opened a door with a _whoosh. _"Word of advice. No matter how hot she is, try and not have your jackass tendencies and thrill of the chase overpower your friendship with Rob. I _like_ the two of you talking again, and I _like_ you on the team." Another door opened. "It's boring around here without you to lighten up the place man. I can only do so much."

"Will do. You should start a column, by the way. _Over Arching Advice for Life_, you could call it."

"I'm being real here. Don't screw this up for a girl you're going to leave and forget when she finally gives in to you." He grunted in pain. "There it is again! Stupid morals."

"Thanks for the warning, but with this one … I don't think it's going to be necessary."

"I don't like that tone of voice, Flash. You sound kooky and like you're not listening to a thing I'm saying."

"I'm not."

"Screw you man." Speedy shook his head at Kid Flash's laughter, hanging up.

* * *

Somewhere far off, a woman flashed a twisted smile, clicking off hercommunicator. Or Hotspot's, that was.

* * *

The streets of Jump City were quiet. Kid Flash sped through them with ease, glad to not have to be dodging the usual gridlock that clogged the roads.

He thought about doing one more quick patrol, but decided against it. _What kind of nut job does villainy at four a.m.? _

Swinging down a side alley, he bounded up a fire escape, counting out four floors before he reached his. He tried the window which he swore he had left open, only to find that it was shut and locked. _Jinx must have closed it_.

Which was weird, because his air conditioner had mysteriously disappeared a couple of weeks ago (right around the time Jinx showed up, now that you mention it) and it must be as hot as hell in that apartment, but he wasn't about to question her judgment.

Maybe she enjoyed the sensation of being on fire, whatever.

Kid Flash ended up vibrating and phasing through the wall into the living room. Not that the heat bothered him anyway. His body automatically regulated his temperature so he wouldn't die of heat stroke or overexertion when running around at mach-five, but it worked for steamy summer nights as well.

Also, seeing Jinx sprawled across the pull out bed, hair down, asleep in nothing but a bra and short shorts helped.

A lot.

He stood there staring for what seemed like a second, but was in actuality ten minutes, before darting back to his room.

Yep. Totally not like those other girls.

* * *

A/N: Long chapter is long. This was way harder than I thought it was going to be. Usually I write for characters who going on long, rambling inner monologues on angsty nonsense, and work through their problems that way. Not Kid Flash. He strikes me as the kind of guy that has to talk through everything, and doesn't really have the type of patience or self-depreciation skills needed to be that introspective.

Which basically led me to write this almost all dialogue monster. Seriously, I feel like the subtitle for this thing should be _ You trying coming up with twenty different ways to say Kid Flash's name_. Was not the cake walk I thought it would be.

And for those who aren't as well versed in the comics:

Wally West was a serious womanizer back in the day. Don't knock me, it's canon. The team Barry and Wally talk about with Robin and Speedy and everyone is a nod to the original Teen Titans. The Titans in the cartoon are actually called _The New Teen Titans_. For the purposes of this story (I.E. my own interpertation) the first team basically was forced to stay at the Justice League's base Watchtower (which really is in outer space in main D.C. lore) while their mentors went out to save the world and have fun without them. Then the Great Wonderpants Incident went down, Robin had a huge fight with KF, and it ended with the team apart and on bad terms.

Robin started the New Titans we all love soon afterward. Meanwhile, KF fooled around with a bunch of girls on Watchtower with Speedy before his uncle -The Flash- had had enough and brought him back to Central City to watch out for him there.

Next up: Car theft!


	8. These Nutjobs

_Come on, come on_…

The door to Wally's room finally closed and Jinx sat up, breathing a sigh of relief. Okay. It would be okay. He probably didn't know about the car, or else he would have woken her up to question her, right?

_Then why did he stare at me for ten minutes? _She looked down at her apparel - a bra and short shorts.

Oh. _Oh. _

It seemed her poor wardrobe decisions had come back to bite her in the ass.

Again.

Surprise, surprise.

"Whatever." She muttered, feeling around the floor for a shirt. Boys stared at her in sparse clothing all the time. Hell, she used to be the only girl in a large group of teenage males for _years_.

You get kind of accustomed to having guys ogle you around the fifth time someone 'accidentally' walks in on you changing.

Pulling up her jeans, she dug through the pockets. She didn't care that Wally had stared at her when he thought she was sleeping. She didn't care at all. Hero or villain, guys were guys _and _idiots, and she would treat his advances just as she would treat Billy's or SeeMore's.

With brutality and misplaced aggression, being her main motivations.

No matter if she maybe, _just a little_, liked Wally staring at her. Maybe more than a little. Not that she cared though. Because she didn't. At all.

Maybe.

Grasping at the cool metal she felt through the fabric on her thigh, Jinx carefully opened the window and slipped out onto the fire escape. Quick as a cat, she climbed over the railing and jumped down, taking hold of the bars of the next railing a floor below. She did this until she hit the ground, landing lithely on the balls of her feet to mute the thud. Taking down the side alley, she ran down the back streets in crisscrossing patterns. Jinx _still _hadn't seen sword or swishy kimono of the mystery samurai lady since the last time but, assuming that if one person had a hit out on you others probably did to, she wasn't about to take the chance of being followed.

She rounded another corner, glancing back over her shoulder into the early dawn. There was also Kid Flash to think about. He took pleasure in showing up at moments when her stupidity was at its height, and be all _you're totally better than this Jinx. Totally better_. And she always would be like _Nah, I'm evil bro. And an idiot. Who gets off on self-destruction. And I really like it when you watch me sleep at four in the morning. So yeah. I'll steal and you'll creep and we can totally make this relationship work for us._

…Okay, so maybe conversations between them didn't go exactly like that, but Kid Flash talks a lot and there's a lot of sighing and awkward pauses and Jinx is only really abridging things and _shut up_.

Ducking into a dimly lit back alley, Jinx skid to a stop, digging her heels into the dirt. She twirled the car keys around her finger once, and then hit the unlock button, lips quirking up in satisfaction as the headlights of an old black van illuminated her figure.

Good. So the car was still here then; the police hadn't found it yet.

She walked up to it and stroked the dented hood, nails scraping against the paint. _Now the only concern I have left is what to do with you…_

* * *

It's not like Jinx woke up that night with the intention of stealing a car in her mind. It's not like she said "Tonight I will screw myself over harder than ever conceived by mortals before," and proceed to run around town, committing crimes. It was like…well…

You know how things just kind of _happen_, right?

Like how one minute you're enjoying your stroll up the sidewalk in the dead of night, as a normal law abiding citizen would. Then, next thing you know, your old villainous teammate almost kills you, and you're embroiled in a high speed car chase and things are blowing up and this a completely normal part of life, nothing wrong with this picture here.

_Seems legit, _you think, nodding your head in affirmation as you blow out the tires of a cop car.

It had started innocently enough. Jinx really had been taking a walk through the city. For once, all was well. There were no midgets screaming at power tools in the vicinity. Or boys in red and yellow spandex flirting with her. Or even crazy ladies with knives stalking her. Life was good.

Then large van came hurtling towards her and life was good no more.

She leapt out of the way, dodging and rolling as the car's tires squealed in their attempt to find purchase against the pavement. The van ground to a stop centimeters away from being wrapped around a telephone pole.

Staggering to her feet, Jinx angrily dusted herself off and stormed over to the driver's window. "Hey!" She shouted. " Guy! It's people like _you _that make Jump City gridlock central! I was nearly-"

"Jinx?" The tinted window rolled down to reveal SeeMore's frightened face.

"SeeMore?" Her shock melted back into anger. "Why the fuck are you driving?"

Inexplicably, the windshield began to crack and splinter . "Well-"

"You only have one eye SeeMore. One eye!" She pointed directly in his face for emphasis. "You don't have the depth perception necessary to drive a vehicle!"

A side mirror shattered into glittering fragments. SeeMore shank back. Jinx pretended not to notice. "Yeah but-"

She squinted in suspicion, giving the car a once over. "And where did you even get this thing? This rust bucket isn't one of Gizmo's toys."

Puffing out his chest, SeeMore looked at her proudly for the first time that night. "I stole it."

She was at a loss for words. "You. Stole. It?"

"Yup." He grinned at her breezily.

"Why would you do something so idiotic?" Jinx growled.

"Uh…" His smile faltered. "Well, I-I thought that maybe…maybe if I did something bad…you would uh, come back. Maybe? " He stuttered.

Far off in the distance, Jinx could hear the shriek of sirens. _I've _been_ hearing sirens _she thought dully. How did the one sound she had been trained her whole life to immediately pick up on suddenly had become no more than white noise?

"Move." She whispered furiously to SeeMore.

"An- Huh?" SeeMore questioned in confusion.

"Move _over_!" Jinx hissed, tugging the door open. Violently shoving SeeMore into the passenger seat, she took hold of the steering wheel and put her foot on the gas pedal.

The tires screeched in protest as she took off down the street. She didn't know exactly where she was going, or even what she was going to do with the car when she got there. Most important of all, she had no clue why the hell she had even decided to help pathetic SeeMore with his pathetic plan to impress her, the pathetic girl who pathetically slept all day and pigged out on pathetic Chinese food all night, all while blowing shit up with her pathetic powers that she pathetically could not control, and watching Kid Flash pathetically take it upon himself to save her pathetic soul and figure out her pathetic name.

( In summary, Jinx was doing pretty good. Thanks for asking.)

"You're a moron." The police sirens grew louder, and Jinx swung the car into a hard right, speeding up a side alley.

SeeMore slumped down in his seat. He could see the incoming onslaught of verbal abuse coming from a mile away, and abruptly remembered why it was _Jinx _who always came up with the plans. "I know."

"I hate you. You're screwing everything up." The plastic covering of the steering wheel began to peel off like old wallpaper, and he watched her knuckles turn bone white.

Sighing heavily, SeeMore leaned against the thick glass window. "Tell me about it."

"What is possessing you to act with zero impulse control? What could you possibly have to gain from this?" Red and blue lights flashed through the back window. Jinx ground her teeth and stepped harder on the gas.

"I," His voice had grown stilted. "I thought you would like this! You're always tellin' us guys to 'take initiative' and 'do stuff for ourselves for once' and I just thought-" He broke off, glancing in his lap. "I just thought that if I showed you I could be just as good as that Kid Flash dude, you would come back and be our leader again."

The police were closing in on them, and her face hardened as she spun into another alley. SeeMore lurched forward, head slamming into the dashboard. "Now, I don't think I deserved _that_." He muttered, shutting his eye tightly. His hands felt for his forehead, in the process coming across the glove compartment handle. "Hey, wait a sec," Trying to sit up, he winced and had one hand rub at his temples while the other opened the glove compartment door. Fishing around for something, his grin slowly started to return to his face. "You know, I wanted to show you something else, too. Gizmo did some serious digging, even managed to get back into the BOE database, and found out a few things you might not like about that Kid Flash guy-"

"Why can't you just get a job and stop depending on an idiot with no fashion sense to do everything for you? You sleep on a couch; I hope you're proud of yourself."

"Wha?" SeeMore stared at her strangely, smile fading fast. He closed up the glove compartment door.

"It's not even a real couch. It's a pull-out, which is like some kind of mutant hybrid of a bed and a couch. You're sleeping on a mutant; glad you've finally realized that."

Frowning, a realization dawned on SeeMore. "…Are you talking to _yourself_, Jinx?"

"What?" She shook her head and glared sharply at him. "Were you saying something SeeMore?"

"Well actually - no, no I wasn't."

"Well, could you be quiet? In the middle of evading law enforcement here, need to concentrate."

He sighed again, lying back. She hadn't even been talking to him. She hadn't even been talking to him! It was like his power was being invisible only to Jinx.

Perhaps he shouldn't even bother with trying to get her back anymore. Jinx would go one way and he and the H.I.V.E. Five would go another, and maybe they would see each other on the weekends or something and go out for pie, but a team they would be no longer! If she wanted to shack up with Kid Flash - who was apparently the womanizing scum of the earth- that also helped old ladies cross the street- that was fine with him.

_Have Kid Flash break her heart like he's done with all those other hero girls, see what I care_. SeeMore clenched his fist and felt his own heart break.

The cops were frighteningly close now, only feet away. Snarling in frustration, Jinx rolled down her window enough to allow her hand to be able to pass through. If she was going down, might as well do it kicking and screaming, not-villain status be damned. Her glowing eyes reflected back at her through the windshield as Jinx hexed the police cars' tires, smiling in spite of herself when she heard the satisfying _pop_.

The two cop cars that had been following Jinx and SeeMore shuddered, spinning and skittering across the asphalt before coming to an uneasy halt in the middle of the road.

Jinx closed up her window and let out a whoop. "Did you see that?" Nudging See-More playfully, she ducked into a series of side alleys, letting the police cars disappear from view.

Wow. She had done it. Jinx, the pathetic not-villain who dwelled on Kid Flash's couch, had successfully become an accomplice to grand larceny, obstructed justice, resisted arrest, _and _harassed law enforcement, all in one go.

Throw in public drunkenness and defacing private property, and you would have her rap sheet, circa spring break sophomore year.

_This is nothing to be proud of Jinx, _a small voice echoed in the back of her mind. _You _are _better than a thief. _

She ignored it.

"Mmmm, and I forgot how good it felt to use my powers like that." She tried to remember the last time she intentionally wanted to make something erupt in fire, or melt into an ooze. It had been … about a month, probably? Three weeks?

Which was completely too long if you asked her.

_You don't need to hurt people to feel good about yourself_.

Fuck off Wally of her conscience; you ruin Jinx's crime high with all of your _morals_.

"Uh-huh, you beat the cops, go Jinx." SeeMore muttered stiffly, tracing the cracks in the window's glass.

"I feel like this weird pressure's been lifted, you know?" She was babbling now but couldn't help herself. She hadn't felt this good and yet this terrible all at once since she had destroyed Madame Rouge's Remote Control Of Evildoing.

"Yup that's cool Jinx. Real cool."

The car came to a stop by the outskirts of town, and Jinx opened the door and hopped out, ripping the car keys from the ignition. " So now, what should we do with this thing?" She asked, eyeing up the license plate.

"I dunno. Didn't think … that far ahead."

"You lie terribly SeeMore," Jinx chirped, hexing off the metal plate. It fell to the ground with a sharp _thunk. _

"I don't-"

"Yes you do," Picking up the license plate and throwing it in the back seat, she marveled at her change in mood.

Ah, the wonders of power wielding paired with crime spree adrenaline/guilt. How two of you had been dearly missed.

"Well … my plan was to kinda show this car to you…" SeeMore bit his lip. "And I thought that you'd come up with the big plan from there."

"Hmmm," Jinx furrowed her brow, glancing around. She walked over to an SUV parked on the street and waved her hand, darting over and picking up its license plate after pink had energy engulfed it. "Here, let me think." Her hands lit up like neon as she got back to the stolen van, and bending over she melted the edges of the new license plate and placed it where the old one had been, effectively welding it to the black car.

Admiring her handiwork, Jinx leaned against the van's hood. "There. That should through the cops off our trail, at least for a little. Now," Finally she met SeeMore's gaze. "I hope you realize that you're not driving this thing back home, especially at this hour." She didn't know what time 'this hour' was exactly, but it seemed like the appropriate thing to say.

_You just want to keep the car…_

No one asked for your opinion, Phantom Wally.

"It's only four in the morning," SeeMore crossed his arms irritability. " 'Snot like I'm not smart enough to know that driving a stolen car around at noontime is a bad idea."

"Well considering- holy shit, it's four a.m.?"

"Yeah, almost. Why?"

Internally, Jinx blanched. If it was four that would mean that Kid Flash would be coming home from Where Ever The Hell He Went City, only to find her gone, and predictably he would give into his stalker tendencies and come looking for her, and oh shit, she really just did steal a car while living under a hero's roof, didn't she?

_I could give it back_, was her first sane thought. The option seemed more and more plausible by the second. _I could give it back. Wally doesn't even need to know. _

"No reason." She grew shifty eyed, and tightened her grasp on the car keys. "Hey SeeMore? I think it would actually be best if I took the car- since it was meant for me and all anyway." Shrugging, Jinx started to inch to the driver's side door. "I'll figure out what to do with it, don't worry."

"So I guess Flash gave you a curfew or somethin' now, huh? Have to be back home before the sun comes up?" SeeMore said quietly. She froze.

"No." Jinx whispered slowly.

" Tell me then. What are you doin' with the van? Are you gonna turn it back in to the cops now, to please him? What happened to Jinx, Miss Independent Leader Lady?"

She felt for the metal handle and got in the car, biting her lip. Rolling down the window, she dared to look SeeMore in the eye. His gaze was at once stony and desperate.

"Well?"

She turned the key in the ignition. The vehicle roared to life, humming beneath her.

"I would tell you if I knew myself."

* * *

Leaning back, Jinx sank into the leather driver's seat of the van. What should she do then? Wally would probably want to her to give the car over to the police or something, to do "the right thing."

Through the windshield she could see the sun winking at her over the rooftops, and knew Wally would be waking up soon - he didn't need a ton of sleep - and that she should probably get back to the apartment.

…Like a little girl with a some kind of curfew to uphold.

_Simply pathetic, like everything else. _

She scowled and set her jaw, climbing out of the car. You know what? She didn't have to give the van back just yet. It was old and kind of worn; she was sure no one would miss it anyway.

_But Wally's going to be so disappointed in you…_

Jinx hesitated for a second, and then pushed the thought from her mind. She didn't need to get him bothered with something as inconsequential as her having taken part in a major theft. He wasn't her parole officer; Jinx didn't have to answer to him.

She, after all, was independent.

And besides, she _was_ going to give the car back.

Eventually.

On her own terms.

Furthermore, it wasn't as if she was going to start stealing stuff all over the place again. She just needed a little excitement before she gave the whole "crime is bad" thing a true go. To prove, if nothing else, that she could still be a rebel. When she felt like it.

The idea was sounding more and more doable. _This is going to be the last time I steal something. Well,_ _intentionally at least. Yeah. _Nodding once, she locked the car resolutely.

Like smokers with their last cigarette, this was to be Jinx's last robbery.

Everyone take note and reconfigure their plans accordingly.

* * *

A/N: Tsk, tsk, Jinx- haven't you learned already that doing things on impulse is a bad idea?

Sorry this is a serious Jinx/SeeMore chapter. (I know we all want to see KF and Jinx interact at some point in this story.) There were about ten different ways this scene could have played out, with many different people filling SeeMore's shoes, but I ended up going with him because- well, you'll find out later.

Don't know when I'll be updating again. Probably soon. I've been busy posting a story about the Young Justice crew for the past month, but I think I'm going to drop that one and just focus on this. (I can't quit this fandom, no matter what I do. It's an obsession.)


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